UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The coast Ras Al Khaimah means ‘head of the tent’, a name that, depending
on your lore of choice, evokes its position at the northern end of the country or the tale of a sheikh who kept a lantern on his tent as a lighthouse for seafarers. Before oil took over in the 1950s, pearl-trading was big business along the emirate’s 40 miles of coastline. Divers would head out to sea on sailboats for months at a time, living in crews of 30 or more to scour the seafloor for oysters. The advent of cheap and convenient cultured pearls in the early 1900s brought an end to this industry, but its heritage is kept alive by Suwaidi Pearl Farm, the first and only one in the Gulf. Set up in 2004 offshore from the village of Al Rams by the grandson of a local pearl-diver, it offers tours guiding visitors through the history of pearling in the region. Part of this history is Al Jazeera Al Hamra, the only pearling village
in the Gulf to have survived the rush for urbanisation in the 20th century. It was home to the Za’ab coastal tribe, who lived here for some 400 years until the changing economy pushed them to seek new fortunes in Abu Dhabi in the late 1960s. Abandoned for over four decades, the village is now kept as an open-air museum. “You sit here and you feel… you feel…” Mohammed Tarbosh trails
off as he pounds on his heart, his eyes searching the ancient courtyard as if he’s going to find the words on its walls of sunbaked coral. Born and raised in Ras Al Khaimah, he works for the Al Qasimi Foundation, which supports the emirate’s social and cultural development, and he’s here in traditional kandura robe and ghutrah headdress to show me around. We walk up a watchtower and inside a mosque, past dusty souk grounds and under the windcatcher towers of family homes, some left in ruins, some rebuilt to their original flat-topped, sand-coloured look. At the moment, it’s all a backdrop to Ras Al Khaimah Art, a yearly
festival that repopulates the ghost village with contemporary installations. There are suspended wire sculptures twirling inside an empty house and Daliesque paintings hung on the exposed bricks of crumbling walls. “Nowadays, visitors to the UAE want to have a cultural journey, too, not just visit malls and tall buildings,” says Muhammed. “Eventually, the glamour will become an everyday thing. This is the story of our fathers, our grandfathers. It’s important we know it.” That’s not to say the emirate is immune to the blue-sky thinking
of Dubai or Abu Dhabi. A 10-minute drive south west, Al Hamra Village is home to top-end hotels and a marina lined with yachts and speedboats. Continue and you’ll reach Jazirah Aviation Club, which offers sightseeing flights on Barbie-pink two-seaters, and man-made Al Marjan Island, still under development but set to welcome a 1,000ft- high resort with 1,500 rooms, 24 restaurants and entertainment options ranging from an on-site theatre to the UAE’s first casino. Between old and new is Ras Al Khaimah city, the emirate’s main hub,
a sparse collection of mid-rise, mid-century buildings to the north east of Al Jazeera Al Hamra. Its seafront splits into an inner-city creek home to the emirate’s biggest concentration of mangroves, which are present
From top: Mohammad Tarbosh of the Al Qasimi Foundation guiding around the Al Jazeera Al Hamra heritage village; an old dhow used at Suwaidi Pearl Farm
JUL/AUG 2024 97
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196
