Four sites in Ras Al Khaimah spanning 5,000 years of history have been added to Unesco's tentative list of world heritage sites.
An abandoned pearling village, megalithic stone tombs, the remains of a medieval metropolis and a palm oasis cradled between mangroves and mountains have been submitted for consideration.
Unesco is the UN's cultural arm and its world heritage sites recognise cultural, historic and natural sites of outstanding value to humanity.
Sites around the globe include the Great Wall of China, India's Taj Mahal and the historic old town of Havana, Cuba.
Abu Dhabi is home to the UAE's only world heritage sites at Al Ain, while 12 across the UAE are now on the tentative list.
The UAE's tentative list also includes Dubai Creek, parts of Sharjah, Sir Bu Nair island and Bidya Mosque.
Now these sites will be further assessed by Unesco.
"I am delighted that these four important sites from Ras Al Khaimah have now been formally added to the UAE’s tentative list of Unesco world heritage sites," said Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth.
"Together, they represent around 5,000 years of our history, with a particular emphasis on our maritime traditions. Julfar was a key port city for international trade for centuries. Jazirat Al Hamra is the best-preserved pearling town in the Gulf. The sites at Dhayah and Shimal offer a record of our distant past as well as our more recent history."
Archaeologists continue to unearth remarkable discoveries about these ancient sites, many of which are largely unknown outside the emirate. Here is their history.
The pearling town of Jazirat Al Hamra
Believed to have been founded in the 1600s, the pearling village of Jazirat Al Hamra was built at the edge of a desert on an island of red sand that gave the settlement its name, The Red Island.
Its abandonment in the late 1960s led to its accidental preservation. The area is a unique example of an original maritime town in the Gulf, almost untouched by the oil boom and development of the late twentieth century. It has an open air souq, a fort, schools, mosques, courtyard houses, twisting alleyways and watchtowers that protected the town’s wells.
Built of coral stone, fossilised beach rock and palm, as well as modern materials like sand brick and concrete, the village is a unique record of Gulf architecture through the centuries.
Rainfall in 2015 uncovered traces of a mosque, later revealed to be a 20-domed mosque depicted on a British map from 1820.
The lost metropolis of Julfar
The thriving port city of Julfar was the medieval predecessor to Ras Al Khaimah. Located at the entrance to the Gulf, it was a metropolis with a population of 50,000 to 70,000 inhabitants in the 14th to 16th centuries.
As the coastline changed and harbours silted up, Julfar moved and so this entry to the Unesco list includes the four sites of Kush, Mataf, Nudud, and the old town of Ras Al Khaimah.
Julfar was one of the few places in the Gulf inhabited continuously through the Islamic period.
Three large lagoons sheltered Julfar’s ships and the city played an important role in the emerging Indian Ocean trade network. Large amounts of Chinese ceramics unearthed in Nudud are testimony to the city’s expansive trade.
The original city was secured by a five-metre high wall stretching seven kilometres from the lagoon to the mountains. With its many rounded watch towers and deep moat, the wall protected the city’s oasis, port and administrative centre.
The megalithic tombs of Shimal
Shimal’s tombs, prehistoric settlements and medieval palace chart this history of the emirate over more than 4,000 years.
More than 100 megalithic tombs are scattered over three kilometres on the gravel plains and acacia forests at the foot of the Hajar mountains. They stand as impressive relics of a vanished culture, and are exceptional not only for their size but variety.
Two round Umm Al Nar tombs, believed to be up to 4,600 years old, are the largest funerary structures of Southeast Arabia.
Centuries later, between 2,000 to 1,600 BC, people constructed tombs up to 20 metres long with stones that weighed up to one tonne.
The Unesco entry describes these megalithic tombs as "a masterpiece of human creative genius" for their vaulted roofing of enormous, overlapping stone slabs.
Above the plains of Shimal is a medieval Islamic palace perched on a mountain plateau, built between the 13th to 16th century. Popularly known as the Queen of Sheba’s Palace, it was the residence of Julfar’s ruler. Dotted amongst Shimal’s wadis are pottery kilns built between the 17th to 19th centuries.
The oasis of Dhayah
Cradled by limestone mountains, gravel plains, mangroves and a lagoon, Dhayah’s diverse geography is a microcosm for the natural variety that gave rise to distinctive cultures of the northern emirates. Evidence of its earlier inhabitants includes a prehistoric cemetery at the foot of its mountains and settlements on an island dating to the early Islamic period.
Dhayah has the last remaining natural palm orchards watered by rainfall alone. Within the shade of these palms are the remains of a mudbrick fort. A second fort overlooks the oasis from a hill. Overlooking the palms and sea, are stone villages and terraced fields built in the mountains above centuries ago.
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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The specs: 2018 Maxus T60
Price, base / as tested: Dh48,000
Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder
Power: 136hp @ 1,600rpm
Torque: 360Nm @ 1,600 rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Fuel consumption, combined: 9.1L / 100km
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
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Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
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
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MATCH INFO
Norwich 0
Watford 2 (Deulofeu 2', Gray 52')
Red card: Christian Kabasele (WatforD)
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
AS IT STANDS IN POOL A
1. Japan - Played 3, Won 3, Points 14
2. Ireland - Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1, Points 11
3. Scotland - Played 2, Won 1, Lost 1, Points 5
Remaining fixtures
Scotland v Russia – Wednesday, 11.15am
Ireland v Samoa – Saturday, 2.45pm
Japan v Scotland – Sunday, 2.45pm
