If you wanted the places I outlined in my Twitter diatribe earlier this week in one handy post, you need go no further. Here, for your delectation and delight, are a number of interesting places in the UAE you can go visit at the weekend - particularly as the cool weather she is upon us. Links in bold are to Google maps pins.
I'll be posting a lot more of these, in more detail, but here are the original candidates just for starters.
Meet Al Dhayah Fort, which you'll find north of Ras Al Khaimah. 400 men women and children holed up here for three days withstanding British bombardment in December 1819. There was no food or water for them - many were simple farmers from the date plantations inland of Rams, chased through the plantations by British bluecoats with bayonets. The fall of Dhayah marked the fall of the Al Qasimi Federation and led to the Trucial States. You can park up next to the fort and take a walk up to it: I'd recommend something to cover your head and a lot of cool water to hand.
Have a walk around and wander up to the Iron Age fort at Jebel Buhais - the largest and oldest necropolis in the UAE, it dates back 7,000 years and tells of a human history of nomadism as well as giving us clues to the 'dark millennium' when humankind abandoned the west coast. You'll find Wadi Suq and other burials littering the sides of the mountain and this here Iron Age fort, discovered by an Iraqi archaeological team back in 1974, which you can walk up to and explore freely. Again, cover your head and take plenty water. Please note, I got this shot in before the drone fly zones changed and Jebel Buhais is now WITHIN the no-fly zone, so please don't try and get an aerial shot. If you want one, ping me and I'll send it you.
Mahatta Fort in Sharjah. Here landed the HP42 Heracles, the biplanes that connected the 1930s 'Empire Route' from Croydon to Australia. You'll find the history all in the museum, housed in the fort built in 1932 to house the Imperial Airways passengers and guard against 'improbable bedouin raids'... There's more info from me here about the fort and museum.
Take a trek around Jebel Hafit in Al Ain and visit the reconstructed 5,500 year-old Hafit Era tombs that litter the foothills of the mountain - they're a bit Star Wars, TBH. Zip around the other side of the mountain to take the 13 KM climb to the top. You can stay up on the mountain at the Mercure Hotel, overlooking the forbidding Rub Al Kali desert or just have a chai at the café up top...
Wander around Ajman Fort, probably the most charming museum in the UAE. It was the Ruler's House right up until 1967 and, oddly enough, was invaded in 1920 by the headman of the place in Sharjah where I live, Abdulrahman Al Shamsi. He made a bit of a mess in the process... The displays include an 'old souq', which is just cute.
The nice thing about Ajman Museum, BTW, is its very authenticity. It's not trying too hard, it's not all consultants and glitz. It's truly a snapshop of life here before modernity came a-knockin'...
Here's Masafi Fort, up in the cool mountains above the Dhaid plain. There's an example of an old falaj waterway inside the museum, which is surrounded by traces of the Iron Age settlement of Masafi, including copper mines that used to provide exports to Sumeria 5,000 years ago.
This is a 'Murabbaa', a fortification or watch-tower. These are to be found all over the UAE and every one tells a story - from Deira's Burj Nahar through to the three towers (this is one, the Western Tower) which guard the wadi at Falaj Al Mualla, deep in the desert. Every one of them is a piece of human history... Falaj Al Mualla has a sweet fort/museum and the wadi here is usually lush and a great winter drive - so is a nip up into the desert and the amazing ghaf forest you'll find there.
Here's Sheba's Palace in RAK (properly, the Shimal Fort), an early Islamic era fortification in Shimal - there are extensive Wadi Suq Era burials around here, too. RAK is also home to many Umm Al Nar and Wadi Suq era finds, the world's longest zipline, the lost maritime city of Julphar with its links to C8th trade with China. RAK Museum is fab, too...
Have a trip to the East Coast, pass by the 10,000 graves of men lost in the Ridda Wars at Dibba, visit Bidya Mosque and marvel at the Portuguese Fort there, itself built of stones recovered from an Umm Al Nar fort and burial site. Stay at Al Aqah's beach hotels or camp there...
Stay in one of my favourite hotels ever, the Hatta Fort Hotel - famous, of course, for its chickens - or glamp it up in style at the Adventure Centre with its bike tracks, ziplines and outdoor activities - including kayaking in the mountain lakes of Hatta. Or you can visit the Hatta Heritage Village...
Here you go - a bit of indoor fun. Visit Rain Room in Sharjah, an immersive art experience which lets you walk in the rain and yet stay as dry as a bone (as long as you don't move too fast!). You have to pre-book online for this one, it's a 15-minute giggle-fest. With a Fen Cafe!
See this? This is a carnelian necklace from Saruq Al Hadid, the 'iron path', a major Iron Age metallurgical centre out in the desert near Marmoom. Most carnelian jewels found in the UAE come from the Harappan Civilisation of the Indus Valley. Mysterious and amazingly rich, the huge trove of bronze, gold, jewellery and weaponry so far found at the Saruq Al Hadid archaeological dig out in the desert near Marmoom (the whole thing, BTW, was discovered by Sheikh Mohammed - and a ring from Saruq Al Hadid gives us the Expo 2020 logo) can be viewed at the Saruq Al Hadid Museum in Shindagha, Dubai.
If you HAVE to go to the Louvre, enjoy things like this decoration from the early Christian church at Sir Bani Yas. You can chat to @Peter_Hellyer about it - he found the whole thing. While you're in Abu Dhabi, visit the Founder's Memorial, an amazing monument to Sheikh Zayed...
Go visit the Heart of Sharjah and enjoy a lavish coffee at the Chedi-managed Al Bait Hotel (take out a mortgage) or any one of innumerable teashops and cafes lining the cool walkways of the souks by the creek. Enjoy museums, art galleries and restoration projects aplenty...
Do let me know how you get on - @alexandermcnabb...
I'll be posting a lot more of these, in more detail, but here are the original candidates just for starters.
Meet Al Dhayah Fort, which you'll find north of Ras Al Khaimah. 400 men women and children holed up here for three days withstanding British bombardment in December 1819. There was no food or water for them - many were simple farmers from the date plantations inland of Rams, chased through the plantations by British bluecoats with bayonets. The fall of Dhayah marked the fall of the Al Qasimi Federation and led to the Trucial States. You can park up next to the fort and take a walk up to it: I'd recommend something to cover your head and a lot of cool water to hand.
Have a walk around and wander up to the Iron Age fort at Jebel Buhais - the largest and oldest necropolis in the UAE, it dates back 7,000 years and tells of a human history of nomadism as well as giving us clues to the 'dark millennium' when humankind abandoned the west coast. You'll find Wadi Suq and other burials littering the sides of the mountain and this here Iron Age fort, discovered by an Iraqi archaeological team back in 1974, which you can walk up to and explore freely. Again, cover your head and take plenty water. Please note, I got this shot in before the drone fly zones changed and Jebel Buhais is now WITHIN the no-fly zone, so please don't try and get an aerial shot. If you want one, ping me and I'll send it you.
Mahatta Fort in Sharjah. Here landed the HP42 Heracles, the biplanes that connected the 1930s 'Empire Route' from Croydon to Australia. You'll find the history all in the museum, housed in the fort built in 1932 to house the Imperial Airways passengers and guard against 'improbable bedouin raids'... There's more info from me here about the fort and museum.
Take a trek around Jebel Hafit in Al Ain and visit the reconstructed 5,500 year-old Hafit Era tombs that litter the foothills of the mountain - they're a bit Star Wars, TBH. Zip around the other side of the mountain to take the 13 KM climb to the top. You can stay up on the mountain at the Mercure Hotel, overlooking the forbidding Rub Al Kali desert or just have a chai at the café up top...
Wander around Ajman Fort, probably the most charming museum in the UAE. It was the Ruler's House right up until 1967 and, oddly enough, was invaded in 1920 by the headman of the place in Sharjah where I live, Abdulrahman Al Shamsi. He made a bit of a mess in the process... The displays include an 'old souq', which is just cute.
The nice thing about Ajman Museum, BTW, is its very authenticity. It's not trying too hard, it's not all consultants and glitz. It's truly a snapshop of life here before modernity came a-knockin'...
Here's Masafi Fort, up in the cool mountains above the Dhaid plain. There's an example of an old falaj waterway inside the museum, which is surrounded by traces of the Iron Age settlement of Masafi, including copper mines that used to provide exports to Sumeria 5,000 years ago.
This is a 'Murabbaa', a fortification or watch-tower. These are to be found all over the UAE and every one tells a story - from Deira's Burj Nahar through to the three towers (this is one, the Western Tower) which guard the wadi at Falaj Al Mualla, deep in the desert. Every one of them is a piece of human history... Falaj Al Mualla has a sweet fort/museum and the wadi here is usually lush and a great winter drive - so is a nip up into the desert and the amazing ghaf forest you'll find there.
Here's Sheba's Palace in RAK (properly, the Shimal Fort), an early Islamic era fortification in Shimal - there are extensive Wadi Suq Era burials around here, too. RAK is also home to many Umm Al Nar and Wadi Suq era finds, the world's longest zipline, the lost maritime city of Julphar with its links to C8th trade with China. RAK Museum is fab, too...
Have a trip to the East Coast, pass by the 10,000 graves of men lost in the Ridda Wars at Dibba, visit Bidya Mosque and marvel at the Portuguese Fort there, itself built of stones recovered from an Umm Al Nar fort and burial site. Stay at Al Aqah's beach hotels or camp there...
Stay in one of my favourite hotels ever, the Hatta Fort Hotel - famous, of course, for its chickens - or glamp it up in style at the Adventure Centre with its bike tracks, ziplines and outdoor activities - including kayaking in the mountain lakes of Hatta. Or you can visit the Hatta Heritage Village...
Here you go - a bit of indoor fun. Visit Rain Room in Sharjah, an immersive art experience which lets you walk in the rain and yet stay as dry as a bone (as long as you don't move too fast!). You have to pre-book online for this one, it's a 15-minute giggle-fest. With a Fen Cafe!
See this? This is a carnelian necklace from Saruq Al Hadid, the 'iron path', a major Iron Age metallurgical centre out in the desert near Marmoom. Most carnelian jewels found in the UAE come from the Harappan Civilisation of the Indus Valley. Mysterious and amazingly rich, the huge trove of bronze, gold, jewellery and weaponry so far found at the Saruq Al Hadid archaeological dig out in the desert near Marmoom (the whole thing, BTW, was discovered by Sheikh Mohammed - and a ring from Saruq Al Hadid gives us the Expo 2020 logo) can be viewed at the Saruq Al Hadid Museum in Shindagha, Dubai.
If you HAVE to go to the Louvre, enjoy things like this decoration from the early Christian church at Sir Bani Yas. You can chat to @Peter_Hellyer about it - he found the whole thing. While you're in Abu Dhabi, visit the Founder's Memorial, an amazing monument to Sheikh Zayed...
Go visit the Heart of Sharjah and enjoy a lavish coffee at the Chedi-managed Al Bait Hotel (take out a mortgage) or any one of innumerable teashops and cafes lining the cool walkways of the souks by the creek. Enjoy museums, art galleries and restoration projects aplenty...
Do let me know how you get on - @alexandermcnabb...
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