"Old Is Gold"

 Traditional architecture is a type of architecture that is usually designed based on the society and culture. Although, it comes from an old design it never goes out of style. Traditional architecture represents each country’s identity in which you can read the past of each country from their old construction.

 Unlike other countries, United Arab Emirates’ traditional materials consist of coral, mud brick, wood, dry stone, and thatch. In the oasis areas, they built the lower parts of their walls from large stone blocks, which supports the houses from water and wind destruction. Also, there were houses that did not last for a long time such as: the houses that are made up of palm fronds and on a wooden frame such as, the houses that were built in Al-Ain on the Omani border. Other  houses that were built in the mountains were made up of irregular-shaped blocks laid without mortar. These houses were built on the ground and their roofs were made up of palm fronds. There are also round stone houses in central mountains of the United Arab Emirates. There are towns in the Gulf Coast that were deeply influenced by their Iranian neighbors in which they took the Iranian designs of their houses such as, the wind towers. These houses can be found in the Bastakiya quarter of Dubai.

Al Bidiya Mosque, Dibba, UAE

There are little or very few old mosques in the United Arab Emirates, but the old ones that can be found are usually in the small villages. However, the large old mosques of the cities have undergone renovation and reconstruction. One of the oldest mosques in the United Arab Emirates is the mosque of Bidiya, which is near Dibba. The Bidiya mosque is designed as a rectangular building with a central pillar that supports four flat-topped domes with pointed finials which is an architectural device carved in stone. It also includes a deep-set mihrab and a fixed minbar of four steps.