City at a glance: Abu Dhabi

It’s a city straight out of the 1960s cartoon, The Jetsons; the world’s largest handloomed carpet, the fastest roller coaster, the tower with the greatest lean and the largest cluster of cultural buildings of the 21st century, are just some of the things that make Abu Dhabi a futuristic centre.

- Raewyn Koh

FORMED IN 1971, The capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is much younger than a good proportion of its citizens and travellers who visit. It sits just off the coast of the mainland and is the largest of the seven emirates. Abu Dhabi also has the largest population but only less than 21% of its 2.3 million residents are Emirati citizens.

Its large expatriate community is what makes it one of the truest cosmopolitans in the world. For years, flocks of expatriates from Britain and the rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia have flown to Abu Dhabi for its flourishing oil industry. There are also a large number of Arabs from other Arab nations, such as Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and other countries.

The influx of expatriates has definitely changed the infrastructure of the city. Only a few decades ago, Abu Dhabi was a barren desert with no running water, electricity or public transport. But with the discovery of two oil mines in the late 1950s, demands for better amenities for the growing number of foreign workers entering the country pushed Abu Dhabi to completely transform its skyline. And thanks to its oil trading industry, gleaming skyscrapers, and other architectural marvels soon became a norm.

Many also attribute the exponentially fast development of Abu Dhabi to Sheikh Zayed, the late former President of UAE. Before his position as President, Sheikh Zayed served as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, which at that point of time was still a separate emirate from the rest of the seven emirates around the Persian Gulf. The decline of the pearl industry and discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi hastened unification calls made of UAE sheikdoms, when Sheik Zayed was declared President of UAE and Abu Dhabi established as the capital of the UAE.