A new kind of attraction is opening in Dubai this month, and this time you're not the visitor — you're the investigator. Treasures Wanted, launching at The Sandwash in Al Quoz, is an immersive detective experience where guests wear headphones and move through a series of rooms, each packed with artefacts, secrets and puzzles to crack.
The setup runs across ten sequential chapters, each built around a real or inspired-by-history art mystery. You'll start with a prehistoric art conundrum before moving through a lineup that reads like a greatest-hits list of art world intrigue: the Herculaneum Scroll buried by Vesuvius, the spirits of a Cambodian jungle, a missing gold leaf coin, and a reenactment of the infamous 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist in Boston — still the largest art theft in history. Later chapters tackle the vanished Mughal-era Peacock Throne, a Chinese seal enigma, a Nazi-era treasure cave, the Ngil Masks of Gabon, and a finale described as Ephemeral Music.
The practicalities are refreshingly simple. Tickets start at around Dhs75, a run-through takes between 60 and 90 minutes, and anyone aged five and up can play — so it works as much for families as for groups of friends who fancy themselves as Poirot. The exact opening date is, fittingly, still under wraps, though the experience is confirmed for this month at The Sandwash, Al Quoz's creative warehouse district that's become one of Dubai's go-to spots for offbeat culture alongside galleries, indie cafés and the nearby Alserkal Avenue art hub.
For travellers, this fills a genuine gap. Dubai's big-ticket attractions tend to skew towards towers, malls and desert adventures, but Treasures Wanted offers an indoor, air-conditioned activity with an actual narrative — ideal for a hot afternoon or an evening with a difference. Because it's suitable from age five, it's one of the few puzzle-based attractions in the city that families with young children can do together, and the sub-Dhs100 entry price undercuts most of the city's marquee experiences. If you're already heading to Al Quoz for Alserkal Avenue's galleries, it slots neatly into the same half-day trip.
Keep an eye on opening announcements if you're visiting soon — the operators haven't confirmed the exact launch date, and the source promises updates. Whether you leave with the case solved or not, an hour and a half of sleuthing for the price of a decent lunch is a pretty good deal.
Original story: What's On Dubai.
