If you've ever wondered at the length of time it can take for a letter or package to arrive from overseas, possibly here is a clue.
To be fair, trying to deliver the post in a city with no functioning address system is never easy, especially back in the 1980s, when this photograph was taken.
It shows the sorting office in the main Abu Dhabi Post Office, located then as it is now, next to Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre on what is now known as Sultan bin Zayed First Street (better known as Mooror).
Given that letters still arrive here from all over the world, and from as many nationalities as there are handwriting styles, it is a tribute to Emirates Post, then as now, that the mail -eventually - makes it through.
*James Langton
