The long drive from Downtown Los Angeles begins on Interstate 105 east, then switches to 605 north until Five Points where you take 10 west, finally escaping the suburban sprawl of Greater LA at San Bernardino.
From here, arid mountains rise on either side of the motorway until it merges into Highway 86 when the exit is right on to Grapefruit Road. Now, it is just short distance to 4th Street and a roundabout with a blue-tiled welcome sign.
After nearly three hours of driving, you have arrived in Mecca.
Mecca, California, that is. Not Makkah in Saudi Arabia. But why is a small town in the Coachella Valley, where attractions include Taco Time and Pizza Milano, named after the holiest city in Islam? The answer is all around you. Date trees.
Parallel climates
Farmers began planting date trees in the Coachella Valley in the 19th century. The climate is hot − rising to 43C in July and August − and the surrounding landscape is mostly desert, with little rainfall except in the winter. Similar to much of the Arabian Peninsula, in other words.
The first trees were imported from the Middle East as “suckers”, tiny plants that spring from the base of date palms. They were sourced across the region, including Iraq, Egypt and Algeria. Many did not survive but, in time, large plantations were established, nurtured by the sunshine and water from underground aquifers.
In 1911, two brothers from the Popenoe family were dispatched to Oman and Iraq, after first mastering rudimentary Arabic. They returned with enough young plants to fill 17 railway wagons for shipment from the port of Galveston to California and lurid stories, as told in the local newspapers, of warding off attacks by hostile desert tribes.
Today it is estimated that around 95 per cent of American dates are grown in the Coachella Valley, with familiar varieties like Medjool and Halawi, which nevertheless sound exotic to the American ear.
The miles of date plantations also created a distinct landscape and culture, one that the locals were quick to exploit for the thousands of visitors to the resort city of Palm Springs, barely 20 minutes' drive away.
A tourism hub
From the 1920s, the date farms of Coachella became an increasingly popular tourist day trip, with attractions like Romance and Sex Life of the Date (actually, a short film on the pollination process) and the date milkshake − using date crystals in a process popularised by Shields Date Garden in 1936 and still going strong.
A Middle Eastern theme also began to develop, one based not so much on the reality of life in the region, but more the American Orientalist perspective of Bible stories and stories like Aladdin from Arabian Nights, with their magic carpets and genies. In many ways, the Coachella Valley is a window into American preconceptions about the Arab world.
At the annual Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival, the main stage features a backdrop with imagined Arabian architecture complete with minarets. Past performances since 1947 have included camel riders, an “Arab Marching Band”, “harem dancers” and an annual Queen Scheherazade and Princess Jasmine pageant.
Going along with this, the unincorporated community of Walters changed its name over a century ago to Mecca. Today, Mecca California has a population of around 8,200 and has a small claim to fame as the location for Wild Angels, Roger Corman’s 1966 biker film which starred Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra.
The Gulf and Middle East still plays an active role in the Coachella Valley. Arabic words like rutab and khaal, referring to the stages of ripening, have passed into the language of Californian date farmers.
There is also an interchange of ideas between Californian and Middle East date growers. Mark Tadros, a second generation farmer whose family originally migrated from Egypt in the 1960s to found Aziz Farms, says he is impressed with some of the new technology for growing and harvesting coming from the Gulf.
In 2024, he told Aramco World magazine: “The date-growing region here wouldn’t exist without the date-growing region in the Middle East.”
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 575bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh554,000
On sale: now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Disposing of non-recycleable masks
Use your ‘black bag’ bin at home
Do not put them in a recycling bin
Take them home with you if there is no litter bin
- No need to bag the mask
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
The biog
Place of birth: Kalba
Family: Mother of eight children and has 10 grandchildren
Favourite traditional dish: Al Harees, a slow cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled cracked or coarsely ground wheat mixed with meat or chicken
Favourite book: My early life by Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah
Favourite quote: By Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's Founding Father, “Those who have no past will have no present or future.”
GROUPS
Group Gustavo Kuerten
Novak Djokovic (x1)
Alexander Zverev (x3)
Marin Cilic (x5)
John Isner (x8)
Group Lleyton Hewitt
Roger Federer (x2)
Kevin Anderson (x4)
Dominic Thiem (x6)
Kei Nishikori (x7)
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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