The Diwan

Hugging the creekside east of the Grand Mosque sits the Diwan, or Ruler’s Court, although current ruler Sheikh Mohammed and his Executive Council now conduct most of the city’s major business from their offices near the summit of the Emirates Towers on Sheikh Zayed Road – leaving the Diwan in possession of various less exalted government officials. The building itself, guarded by a long line of ostentatiously high black railings, is a large but uninspiring modern edifice topped by a few oversized wind towers. Rather more eye-catching is the attached Diwan Mosque (with its main entrance in Bastakiya), topped by an unusually flattened onion dome and a slender white minaret which rivals that of the nearby Grand Mosque in height. Non-Muslims can visit the interior of the mosque during the walking tours of Bastakiya run by the SMCCU.