During my travel in the UAE I couldn’t miss the chance to visit Al Jazirat Al Hamra. A town which is more like a desolated village, south of Ras Al Khaimah and north of Dubai.
The town was built on the site of a settlement dating back to 14th century, founded on a small peninsula by a local tribe, Za’ab or Hadhr, mostly pearl catchers, who abandoned it when they moved to Abu Dhabi no more than twenty years ago.
The Za’abs left so quickly from Al Jazirat that still today you can find their homes partly furnished and that’s why the place is known as a ghost city. In popular beliefs the town is haunted by jinns, spirits that roam special places as this one disguised as animals.
All buildings and the city walls as well are in ruin and in some cases even dangerously collapsing. Their singularity lies in the fact that they were all built with lime and corals, and only in few details bricks, concrete and iron were used.
Roofs are mostly made of palm leaves and therefore only few of them survived. Considering the building materials, the town is fated to disappear in a not very long time.
The only site in town sill intact and well preserved is the mosque. It seems as its carpets, clean even today, were still waiting for the believers to come and pray
The best hours to visit this town and bring back home some stunning picture are definitely at dawn and sunset. At any other time the hot temperature is almost unbearable, especially during the summer season.
