When it opened ten years ago, the Eye of the Emirates was the tallest ferris wheel not just in the Middle East, but from Africa to Central Asia. From a height of 60 metres, the air-conditioned observation cars give spectacular views across the Sharjah Corniche and the lagoons and as far as Dubai and the Burj Khalifa.
It was not, however, the first of its kind in the emirate. This is a Sharjah funfair in 1969. Cobbled together from scraps of wood and hand-powered, the ferris wheel seen here lacks air conditioning, gives hardly any views at all and probably breaks every heath and safety regulation in the books, plus a few more no-one has thought of.
If there is any consolation about sending your children up in such a contraption, it is that even if they fell out, the distance to the ground was probably not enough to do them any great harm. And it does look like great fun.
Courtesy Alain Saint Hilaire
* James Langton
