Dubai kicks off delayed Expo 2020, the 1st World Fair in the Middle East

The United Arab Emirates spent eight years and billions of dollars turning 1,080 acres of Dubai desert into the site of Expo 2020, the first World Fair in the Middle East. Dubai opened Expo 2020 on Friday, a year late due to the COVID-19 pandemic, showing off "a buzzing futuristic landscape with robots, a new metro station, multi-million dollar pavilions and so-called districts with names like 'sustainability' and 'opportunity,'" The Associated Press reports.
The Dubai organizers say 192 nations are represented at the World Fair, including the U.S., which has a replica of the Space X Falcon 9 rocket at its pavilion. The opening ceremony was held in a central dome that Dubai says is the world's largest 360-degree projection screen, built, AP notes, with 8.5 miles of steel.
World expos have been venues for different countries to mingle and show off their new technologies since the London World Fair of 1851. Most of them have been in Europe and North America, including several in the U.S., starting in 1876. The telephone, TV, Ferris wheel, elevator, carbonated soda, sewing machine, and Heinz Ketchup all made their worldwide debuts at world fairs, and several iconic structures — the Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle, San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, and the Unisphere in Queens, New York, for example — were built for the expositions.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, welcomed guests to the UAE, where "the ethos of this land" is providing a place where people from every nation, East or West, can mingle for business and pleasure.
Critics noted that the emirates built the desert dreamscape using low-paid foreign labor. Also, the UAE is less an "open and tolerant country" than it is a land where "abusive authorities forcefully bar all peaceful criticism and dissent," Human Rights Watch said in a report on Expo 2020. "The UAE has embarked on a decades-long effort to whitewash its reputation on the international stage."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
May 26 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Monday's political cartoons feature Donald Trump's red tie, Hunter Biden's crypto lament, and one meaning of Memorial Day
-
3 tips for coping with financial stress
The explainer Feel more at peace in an unpredictable economy
-
Crossword: May 26, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Israel's Western allies pull back amid Gaza escalation
speed read Britain and the EU are reconsidering allegiance with Israel as the Gaza siege continues
-
Trump drops ceasefire demand after Putin call
speed read Following a phone call with Russia's president, Trump backed off an earlier demand that Putin agree to an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine
-
Pro-EU centrist beats Trump acolyte in Romania vote
speed read The mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, defeated hard-right nationalist George Simion in the race for Romania's presidency
-
Kurdish PKK militia to disband for Turkey talks
speed read The Kurdistan Workers' Party will disarm after four decades of armed conflict with Turkey, putting an end to 'one of the longest insurgencies in the Middle East'
-
US, China agree to lower tariffs for 90 days
speed read US tariffs will fall to 30% from 145%, while China will cut its tax on US imports to 10% from 125%
-
India strikes Pakistan as tensions mount in Kashmir
speed read Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called it an 'act of war'
-
Israel approves plan to take over Gaza indefinitely
speed read Benjamin Netanyahu says the country is 'on the eve of a forceful entry'
-
Putin talks nukes as Kyiv slated for US air defenses
speed read 'I hope they will not be required,' Putin said of nuclear weapons on Russian state TV