Day 1 Tue May 21. After Socrata, I returned to Abu Dhabi and rented a car to see all of the UAE, starting with Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Europcar AUH. Small Chev 7 days, no excess CA$300.
Day 3 Thur May 23
I stayed in the hotel till 11 and then started my drive about.
HUWAYLAT Fujairah southernmost exclave DARE. This is a tiny town in the middle of the mountains. The road continuing to Wahla had many gravel sections where it was washed out from the wadi it parallels.
WAHLA – Fujairah southernmost exclave DARE
Awhala (Wahlah) Fort, Wahlah. A small 50X100 m fort with a large 2-story, 11 m tall and 9 m round tower (2.5 m thick walls) and a small courtyard. Climb up the tower. Free
Wadi Al Helo: Testimony of Bronze Age Copper Production. Tentative WHS.
The drive to Fujarah paralleled a huge rough mountain area surrounded by a complex fence topped with razor wire.
FUJAIRAH
Fujairah Museum. Archaeology – pots, copper, soapstone, iron daggers, jewelry, a grave, and an ostrich egg water holder. Ethnology – mats, cooking, fishing. 5AED
Fujairah Fort. Sitting on a small hill, it has three towers (2 round and one square). It can’t be entered. There are many restored outbuildings and small melting into the ground. Free
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. A massive white mosque with 6 minarets and several domes. The men’s prayer hall has a 4 massive columns supporting a huge dome surrounded by a complex number of secondary domes. Must wear pants.
Pass through a massive oil tank farm with a small refinery.
NAHWA DARE. Part of the Emirate of Sharjah, it is a counter-enclave (or second-order enclave) within the Omani territory of Madha, which is itself an exclave of Oman and an enclave within the United Arab Emirates. This is a tiny village with seemingly more government buildings than people. It was about 10 km from the highway through much road construction because of washouts from the nearby wadi. The road ends in a rough section of gravel after a wadi.
KALBA. Sharjah Emirate exclaves within the UAE DARE
A high-end town with many stunning buildings including a massive square clock tower in a roundabout.
KHOR FAKKAN. Sharjah Emirate exclaves within the UAE. DARE
Resistance Monument, Khor Fakkan. A stunning curved geometric monument sitting on a hill overlooking Khor Fakkan Square (a huge roundabout with a central large water jug and four pools with geyser systems) with great views. The monument honours those who resisted the Portuguese invasion in 1507.
Khor Fakkan Beach, Sharjah (East Coast). A very long (at least 1 km) golden sand beach. No surf the day I was there and about 10 swimmers close to the center. There are several change houses and many lifeguards. The corniche is extravagant with a rubber running path, bicycle lane, grass, trees and restaurants.
Al Bidya Mosque (30/01/2012). Tentative WHS. Built in 1446, it is the oldest mosque in the UAE. A small square structure, it has four domes supported by a large winged column. A very simple mihrab in minbar.
Wadi Wurayah National Park, Tentative WHS. It was not possible to actually enter the park – the gates were locked and there was no one around.
MASAFI, Ras al Khaimah Emirat southern area.
Masafi Fort. A small fort with a large round tower that can be entered but climbing the steep ladder up isn’t possible. Free
ON Uptown Apartments. 132AED. I had a long search for a hotel in Masafi (only 2, both very expensive) and Maliha (none) so I drove 35 km back down to Fujairah. It was very nice for a great price.
Day 4 Fri May 24
For several reasons, I decided to stay one more night in Fujairah – it was a Friday and I thought some sites might be closed, I had one day to spare in my itinerary, the hotel was nice and also very cheap and I welcomed a day off from a busy schedule.
ON Uptown Hotel Apartments. 132 AED on Booking.com, 200 AED at the front desk.
Day 5 Sat May 25
Meliha Archaeological Centre. This is a great museum with a complete discussion of glaciation, Neolithic, Bronze, Iron Ages, late pre-Islamic, all the individual ruins (the fort, palace), and a great video showing how the Felaj are constructed (very much like quants in Iran. 25 AED. To see the ruins up close, one must book a tour with a guide but for 190 AED.
Mleiha, Late Pre-Islamic Center of a South-East Arabian Kingdom. Tentative WHS.
Mleiha is located in the Central Region of Sharjah with several archaeological sites ranging in date from the Paleolithic to the Islamic period, as well as an uninterrupted occupation since the Neolithic.
Neolithic and Bronze Age occupations occurred on the slopes of Jebel Faya. The Iron Age period, early and mid-1st millennium BCE shows a sophisticated water procurement through falaj technology allowing agriculture. that allowed cultivation in a region whose climate was similar to the present one. The domestication of the dromedary triggered an extensive network of trade routes crossing the Arabian Peninsula. Mleiha became a trade hub, showing contacts with India, Iran, East Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. The large pre-Islamic settlement of Mleiha is found on the plain, where groundwater was plentiful.
A tomb and tombstone with a bilingual script, Aramaic and Hasaitic, has confirmed that the Kingdom of Uman, probably the “Omana” of classical sources, was established in this region in the third century BCE. This Kingdom included most of modern UAE and the northern regions of Oman. In the six centuries leading to its final demise in the third century CE, Mleiha grew due to its control of a network of trade routes crossing the Arabian Peninsula. Coins modelled after Alexander the Great’s tetradrachm, breeding of Arabian horses and hybrid camels, the use of Aramaic and monumental tombs, forts, and palaces. Horse and camel burials are unique to Mleiha.
The site was abandoned following a violent attack by an unknown enemy, during the time when the Sasanian Empire took control of the major East-West trade routes, possibly causing the collapse of the Kingdom of Oman.
Al Dhaid Fort (Sharijah). A completely reconstructed fort with 4 watch towers, a falaj, and a good museum (caravan r0utes, dates, falconry, ethnography. Free
Falaj Almualla Fort (Umm Al Quwain). Another reconstructed fort (and a 15 km detour) dating to 1825, with 3 watchtowers next to a date palm oasis. Free
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – RAS AL-KHAIMAH
RAK is the gateway to the spectacular Musandam Peninsula, an enclave of Oman via the Shams/Tibat border post about 35km north of RAK City. Beyond the border await a dramatic coastal drive and the town of Khasab, where you can catch dhow cruises and go snorkelling with dolphins. If eligible for a free tourist visa for the UAE, you won’t need to obtain a separate visa for Oman.
Tentative WHS
The pearl trading town of Jazirat Al-Hamra. A former island, is the last remaining traditional coastal town in the Gulf. It was founded in the 17th century and abandoned in the late 20th century. It has traditional courtyard houses, narrow alleyways, traditional Gulf-style mosques, and a suq. The inhabitants practiced pearl fishing and pearl trade.
The only remnants of the pearl trading town are the Jazirat Al-Hamra Heritage Center. It consists of a remodeled fort and several courtyard homes, most with winter and summer buildings. Free
Trading Town of Julfar.
Shamal. Atop a craggy mountain above the village of Shamal, some 5km northeast of RAK City, are the ruins of one of the UAE’s oldest archaeological sites, a mystery-shrouded fort called Sheba’s Palace. Built sometime between the 13th and 16th centuries, only a few stone walls and a badly ruined barrel-shaped building remain. The views are good.
Climb good stone steps for about 5 minutes (prickly bushes) but the stairs end for a scramble up the last 30 m. It was not worth the climb in the 42° heat.
The Cultural Landscape of Dhayah
Dhayah Fort is an 18th-century fortification, the highest hilltop fort in the UAE and in 1819 was the last bastion of local resistance to the British punitive expedition of 1819 which sacked Ras Al Khaimah, Rams and southern coastal settlements as far as Dubai. It was restored in 1990 and lacks a natural source of water.
The sign says 69 m and 239 steps to the large rock wall surrounding the rock and dirt of the top. There are two reconstructed towers, one on the top and one on the side. Again not really worth the climb in the 42° heat.
RAS AL KHAIMAH
National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah. In the 0riginal reconstructed fort, there are several small exhibits – a date press, weapons, silver jewelry (men’s silver tweezers were unusual), pots, seals, and porcelain from China and Thailand. 5 AED
Flamingo Beach. A long straight yellow sand beach that was quite busy.
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – UMM AL-QAIWAIN
This tiny emirate is wrapped around an island-dotted lagoon, and is in many ways the ‘anti-Dubai’ – small, sleepy and quaint. Visit the Umm Al Quwain Fort Museum for the history of the emirate.
Ed-Dur is an ancient coastal settlement overlooking Al Beidha Lake, the largest archaeological site in the emirates dug in 1974 with evidence of human habitation spanning the Ubeid period, Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Pre-Islamic period. During the latter period, the settlement appears to have been at its most prosperous and the hills of were entirely covered with dozens of buildings and thousands of stone-built tombs. Some 500 of these tombs have been excavated, with grave goods discovered including drinking sets, Roman glass, weaponry, pottery, jewelry and ivory objects. It is thought some 20,000 tombs are on the site in all.
Google Maps directed me first to a very sandy road that I almost got stuck in during the first few hundred metres. I turned around and went to the Al Dur Temple. There was an unfinished building and a locked gate. The site was apparently permanently closed.
Al Dur Temple. Vestiges of the Past:
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – AJMAN
North of Sharjah, Ajman is the smallest of the seven emirates. Although still comparatively laid back, it has also seen significant in recent years. For visitors, the main attraction is the pretty, palm-lined, white-sand beach while strolling along the Corniche.
DARE Ajman emirate exclaves (Masfoot, Manama)
AJMAN
Road – E11: Ras al Khaimakh-Dubai-Abu Dhabi-Saudi border
Ajman Museum. In the fort that was also the ruler’s palace, it was destroyed by the British in 1819. Exhibits include a living room, kitchen, archaeology, gold jewelry, history and the police. 5AED
Sheikh Zayed Mosque. It has 4 minarets, 4 large columns supporting the dome and nice stained glass in the dome.
Ajman Beach. A short yellow sand beach with moderate surf.
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – SHARJAH
Faya Palaeolandscape in the Central Region of the Emirate of Sharjah Tentative WHS. It is about 55 km to the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the East. It is an anticline, the Faya Range, a natural sand desert to the west and the Dhaid-Madam Plain to its east.
The Faya Range is a chain of limestone outcrops that provided a favourable environment for human habitation from the Early Middle Palaeolithic about 210,000 years ago and until the Neolithic about 5,000 years ago. The area was rich in raw materials, especially flint. Springs form at the base of the Faya range and offer a significant source of water.
The archaeological sites show intermittent human settlements during several different climatic periods throughout the Stone Age.
It was the earliest and most continuous human occupation on the Arabian Peninsula even during hyper-arid desert conditions.
SHARJAH
Sharjah Fort. Prison and punishment, the residence of the king, navy and colonization, trade routes and a well. Free if over 60
Calligraphy Museum. Older writing instruments and calligraphic art. Free if over 60.
Archaeology Museum. Exhibits from Neolithic, Bronze, Iron and pre-Islamic. Nothing very new. Free if over 60.
Al Majaz Waterfront. Urban Legends. An urban park on the water with restaurants and a playground.
GO TO DUBAI & ABU DHABI
