Beauty and Excitement Enshrine Our Journey to Al Ain – Garden City of the United Arab Emirates

posted on: Mar 10, 2021

By: Habeeb Salloum/Arab America Contributing Writer

“Today we’re going to explore beautiful Al Ain, then drive to the top of its overshadowing Hafeet Mountain”, I explained to my wife and daughter as we left the crowded streets of Dubai behind.  “Oh no!  I don’t want you to drive up that mountain!  You know that I’m scared of heights!”  My daughter appeared to be agitated.  I did not answer, but resolved in my mind, come what may, I intended to drive up to the summit of that mountain.

Twice during my previous trips, I had driven only part way up the mountain because of my daughter’s panic attacks.  This time my daughter, who as she often told me was afraid of even three-foot heights, was not going to stop me.

Soon, we were driving on a six-lane superhighway from Dubai to Al Ain, smooth as silk and hidden from the surrounding desert by thick shrubs and trees, lining both sides of the expressway.  Some four years back I had driven along the same road and for most of the way the sands edged the paved highway.  This day it was a different story.  Greenness was all encompassing.  We rarely saw the sands except where there was he odd opening in the shrubs and trees.

Even more surreal, through these openings, at times, we glimpsed greenhouses, and patches of green fields.   It was apparent that the once endless desert in the United Arab Emirates was fast being transformed into a green covered landscape.

In less than one and a half hours after leaving the city of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates’ throbbing commercial heart, we were driving on a palm-dominated avenue as we entered Al Ain – an oasis city of some 300,000.  Called the ‘Garden City of Abu Dhabi’, it is a desert metropolis saturated with 18 million palm trees.  We soon noted that the route was made for strangers.  Every few hundred yards, brown signs guided visitors to the main tourist sites of Al Ain.  A favourite destination for Europeans, the city gets its name from the Arabic ‘the spring’ – so named because of its location, in an oasis fed by bubbling springs of clear water.

Situated on the edge of Rub’ al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) and overshadowed aby the impressive Omani mountains, which give character to the landscape, Al Ain is a testimony of what man can create from a desert waste.  It is a very clean town of wide avenues edged by flowering -lush greenery and garden parks.  At their intersections are roundabouts made into exquisite little gardens covered with flowers, grass, shrubs and huge, attractive replicas of products, historically related to the daily life of the people.

Like garlands, the parks enhance the architecturally imaginative and modern villas, apartment buildings and majestic mosques – all blending together with the greenery.  No one driving on the spotless streets and exploring some of Al Ain’s some 71 well-tended parks, an attractive combination of greenery, desert and mountains and natural hot water springs, can imagine that all around is the inhospitable desert hugging this verdant spread – continually expanding day by day.  Al Ain’s achievements in landscaping and architectural development have turned the city into an idyllic spot of oriental beauty with a modern aura.

For hundreds of years, Al Ain was a backwater town until oil was discovered some half a century ago.  At that time, the oasis was fortunate to have as its governor, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late President of the UAE.  Under his benevolent rule and in the subsequent years, its growth and greenification have been phenomenal.

The city is also an important agricultural and industrial center and the heart of educational cultural activities. Its crowning feature is the Emirates University. Set against the backdrop of the Omani mountains, it features fine Islamic architecture, especially the attractive dome of its campus mosque, which gives a distinctive character to the city skyline. The more than 20,000 students, 79% women, pay no fees and most of their needs are offered free – from books and transportation to room and board. 

Today, tourism in Al Ain is the fastest growing industry. Visitors, between November and April, are flooding in ever increasing numbers to enjoy Al Ain’s attractive combination of greenery, desert and mountains. When they make the journey to the city, travelers are never disappointed.

After they arrive, at the top of some of the visitors’ agendas, like ours this day, is the drive up to the summit of the 1,350 m (4,420 ft) high Jebel Hafeet, the highest mountain in the country, to enjoy the cool fresh mountain air. At the foot of that mountain, we turned and began our climb upward. On both sides of the well-engineered and paved highway, there were solid cement guard rails. Feeling happy and safe, I turned to my daughter, “See these guard rails! There is nothing to fear!”

As I turned a sharp curve, I glanced sideways to see my daughter cringing in her seat, “Let’s turn back!  Look downwards! We’re going to fall!”  I looked at her in amazement as I maneuvered our car around yet another curve, edged by a solid rock cliff towering above us.  “Look! Look! It’s going to fall on us!”  My daughter shrieked, “I don’t want to go to heaven yet!” her mother piped in as I turned yet another sharp curve.

Ignoring their protests and cries of dismay, I drove upward to the summit. Parking on a large man-made fenced platform, I walked around breathing in deeply the cool mountain air. The heat of the desert below was but a memory as I felt invigorated and elated. I looked at my wife and daughter who now looked happy and content. I was sure they now regretted their childish protests and unjustified fears.

A few hundred feet downward, we stopped for a restful interlude at the Mercure Grand Hotel – a luxury abode set maid the clouds. Here, as we sipped on our Turkish coffee and relaxed, it was easy to think of Al Ain, the green-oasis paradise, springing up from the heart of red and yellow sands. Saturated by the fragrance of its eight million majestic date palms, edged by magnificent architecturally striking structures, it was for us and to many other travelers an enticing ‘21st century garden city’.