The amount of growth is truly staggering…

Dubai has transformed significantly over the last 30 years, from a sleepy port town into a sweeping metropolis at the forefront of technology and architecture.

And while it seems like a new skyscraper pops up every other week, there’s no better proof of the emirate’s massive growth than when viewed from space.

US space agency NASA has released the below Gif that in a split second flicks between a recent shot of Dubai from 2017, to a humbler view in 1984.

Aside from the staggering number of buildings that have sprung up in the intervening 34 years, the images also show how much the emirate’s coastline has been altered with the addition of man-made islands and ports.

During this period, Dubai’s population has grown from 350,000 people to just over 3 million. The Gif was originally published by Forbes in an article detailing NASA’s Landsat programme, which has been collating satellite imagery since 1972.

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