The standout attraction is the only one of its kind in the Middle East and Global Village is inviting everyone to visit the world’s most bizarre, intriguing, and fascinating location

Dubai, UAE, 17 January 2021: Global Village, the UAE and wider region's leading multicultural family destination for culture, shopping, and entertainment, is calling on adventure enthusiasts across the UAE and beyond to visit the park and take a tour round the incredible Ripley’s Believe It or Not!® museum attraction. After decades of thrilling audiences around the world, the famed attraction made its regional debut in Season 24, becoming an overnight favorite with Global Village fans. The profile and popularity of the alluring showcase have developed swiftly ever since, with the world’s most remarkable collection of natural, scientific, artistic, or human oddities and artefacts brought together in one unique place. This Silver Jubilee season, over 100 new exhibits have been added to enhance the Ripley's experience – and guests of all ages are invited to witness the weirdness!

“Building on Dubai’s reputation as a leading tourism hub and developing our extensive portfolio of attractions to help bring the world to our shores has always been central to the Global Village vision,” said Jaki Ellenby, Executive Director of Marketing and Events at Global Village. “The Ripley’s Believe It or Not!® museum attraction is a great example of this. The world-renowned “odditorium” provides a great mix of educational content, cultural discovery and fun-filled experiences. This season, guests from home and abroad are loving this unusual and fascinating attraction. As the nation continues its journey as the destination of choice, we are always looking to amplify the wow factor that our guests have come to know and love.”

With six uniquely themed galleries, a Marvelous Mirror Maze, and retail shop stocked with rare and weird souvenirs, the museum guarantees an experience that cannot be found anywhere else in the Middle East and North Africa region. Besides historical artifacts, animal and human oddities, pop-culture memorabilia, and incredible art made from unusual materials or astonishing methods, hands-on interactives and stories of people and places that are hard to believe but undeniably true await at every turn. 

The “Tribal Jungle” is home to a wild mix of personal artifacts collected by Robert Ripley, the museum’s founder, including shrunken heads, shadow art, and Chinese coin swords. New to the “Human Oddities” gallery is the Willard Wigan Display, which showcases some of the smallest handmade artworks and masterpieces in history, while wax figures imitating real people are also standout features. These include Robert Wadlow, the world’s tallest man who stood 8 foot 11 inches, and Edward Hagner, the world’s thinnest man who never weighed more than 50 pounds. 

The “Magical Studio” gallery is now home to horror-themed old-age prison cell exhibits that attract the attention and curiosity of guests, and the “Space Gallery” is home to unique collections from outer space. These include a Campo de Cielo meteorite thousands of years old, a rock from Mars found in Africa 1963 that is 9 million years old, a spacesuit glove, and Soviet astronaut survival kit. Furthermore, the “American and Arabia” and “Ripley’s Warehouse” galleries are home to eye-catching sculptures, a bamboo toothpick capital, a T-Rex skull casting, a woolly mammoth tooth, the world’s only floating wooden-built Ferrari, and much more.

The ever-popular “Marvelous Mirror Maze” was also upgraded ahead of Season 25, with mirrors and LED lights providing newfound levels of illusion. Guests need to rely on all five senses to make their way through a sea of mirror reflections and unexpected corners to come out by the retail shop, which is home to various gifts, memorabilia, and souvenirs.