Photo essay: Inside Abu Dhabi's Heritage Village - where ancient traditions are kept alive

The Heritage Village in the Abu Dhabi Corniche is home to a diverse group of artisans who still use traditional methods for their crafts, some of which are thousands of years old.

Tucked away on Marina Mall Island close to the city centre, the Heritage Village gives visitors and tourists a taste of traditional life from architecture and artefacts, to the talented artisans creating pottery, fabrics, glass ornaments and much more.

“I came to Abu Dhabi to take over from my father who had been working as a potter here at the Heritage Village for more than 20 years,” Osama El Adel, an Egyptian potter, tells The National.

“My father has gone back now to our home in Egypt and I’ve taken over creating pottery and I really enjoy it.”

El Adel’s family come from the city of Mansoura, where his grandfather and father learnt the art of pottery.

He has been working as potter in the Heritage Village for the past five years, after his father and grandfather taught him the craft.

“We do everything using traditional methods, even the tools we use are traditional. This is important for us,” he says.

“We don’t use any kind of electricity or technology. The thing I enjoy most is when I’m designing a piece from clay, when I create something from my mind.”

El Adel says tourists are curious and enjoy seeing him work using traditional methods, particularly when he is sculpting a vase or decorative object.

“When the tourists see us working in the traditional way and not using any modern methods, they are very impressed and get a lot of enjoyment from it.”

Younis Al Fallah, a Moroccan dagger maker, also found that tourists to the Heritage Village have a keen interest in the traditional methods.

“Many tourists come to Heritage Village. We speak to them and explain to them our work and show them how we work,” Al Fallah says.

“They are always surprised that we still maintain some of our methods or that daggers are still being made today.”

Al Fallah comes from the city of Fez in Morocco, where for several generations his family has been creating traditional and decorative objects such as tapestries and traditional daggers.

The daggers, also known as khanjar, are found across the region in varying sizes and designs.

While they were once used for hunting and fighting, today they are used as decorative objects and for special ceremonies.

Al Fallah was taught the craft of designing and creating the khanjar by his father when he was 10 years old.

“These are the skills we all learnt from our fathers,” he says.

“We were taught these decorative arts from them and then we try to make them better, employing more artistry to the designs and improving the methods when we can.”

Al Fallah came to Abu Dhabi more than a year ago to work as a khanjar craftsman, and was surprised by the number of tourists that visit the Heritage Village and their interest in his art.

“I enjoy talking to them, it's interesting,” he says.

“They say it’s amazing that even though people don’t use these daggers like they used to any more, that we are still designing and creating them. They love the story of it.”