Museum of Illusions, Dubai

Unlike other museums, the Museum of Illusions encourages interaction with the exhibits. Taking approximately an hour, you’ll be guided from room to room and encouraged to make the most of each exhibit. The exhibits are either photos, rooms, or installations that are categorised as ‘Master Illusions’, ‘Grand Illusions’, and ‘Optical Illusions’.

1. Mirage installation places you in the middle of the desert

2. Stereogram is a 3D puzzle with a hidden object inside, but you can only discover it if you find just the right position to view it.

3. Ambiguous Cylinder is either a quadrant or a cylinder based on how you’re looking at it and lets you rotate it around with a handle moving right or left.

4. Clone Table is a round table that reflects your reflection back through two mirrors angled at 60 degrees – making it look like there are five versions of you sitting around the same table!

5. Head on a Platter is similar to a magician’s trick, where you’ll stare at the platter and wonder where the rest of the body is being hidden.

6. Chair Illusion, inspired by psychologist Jean Beuchet’s work, exhibit plays with proportion and perspective, a picture from just the right angle creates the illusion of an extremely tiny person standing beside an average-sized person.

7. Ames Room distorts perception, making the person standing on the left look like a dwarf while the person standing on the right looks like a giant. The sizes shift as you move from side to side.

8. Anti-Gravity Room which, as the name suggests, makes you look like you’re floating in space or even floating upside down, depending on where you stand. In the Playroom, you’ll find a bunch of mind-boggling puzzles to be solved.

9. Dilemma Games: They include brain teasers for all ages that stimulate your cognitive abilities and decision-making abilities.

10. Playroom Tour encourages young children to solve each puzzle and offer help at each step of the way. 

The Museum of Illusions is located at Al Seef area near Dubai Creek. It is accessible from both Deira (Old Dubai) side as well as Bur Dubai side. From Bur Dubai side, you can take the metro to Al Fahidi Metro Station which is 1 kilometre (5 minutes) from the museum. If you’d prefer to come by taxi, the museum is approximately 17 kilometres (30 minutes) from Jumeirah Beach and 8 kilometres (15 minutes) from Dubai International Airport.

From Deira side, you can take the metro to Baniyas Square which is 6 kilometres (15 minutes) from Museum of Illusions. From there, you can either take a taxi or hire an abra (water taxi) that will quickly cross the creek for a nominal amount of AED 20. If you are coming from Sharjah you can come from Al Maktoum Bridge, Business Bay Bridge, Shaikh Zayed Road or Shindaga Tunnel depending on your route.

1. The museum allows entry in sessions per hour. It’s best to call ahead or check their website to understand the different sessions, or else you’ll end up waiting outside for quite a while before they can let you in
2. The museum has a small retail section where they sell education games and small versions of their optical illusions. If you enjoyed the museum experience and want to take something back home, this is definitely the place to shop. You can buy things like educational toys, a T-shirt, or even a Museum of Illusions notebook from amongst their 90+ options.
3. As the Museum of Illusions experience is completely indoors, it’s a great option for one of Dubai’s hotter days when going to the beach or being outside seems like a far-fetched idea.