I’ve always imagined an oasis to be some sort of a lake or pond with a few palm trees flanking it surrounded by acres and acres of barren sandy desert. This apparently ain’t so. Not here in the UAE anyway.
Here’re pictures of Al-Ain a typical oasis town in this part of the world (I presume). It’s a part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi and is about an hour’s drive inland from here in Dubai. It sits just across the border with the Buraimi oasis of Oman. There're no lakes, no visible water body of any kind as far as I’d seen. But yes, there’re palm trees, date palms to be precise, swaths of it all over town, especially at the location that looks like the middle of an oasis in the map. Went all over the place looking for the oasis, and what do I find, a freaking date palm plantation that looks almost exactly like our oil palm estates.
Al-Ain Palace Museum – see those palm trees at the back just behind the palace wall? That, is the oasis of Al-Ain.
This place used to be a palace for the ruling clan of Abu Dhabi (hence the name Palace Museum)
Anu and a museum / palace guard
The road to Jebel Hafeet, a hill of crumbling rocky outcrops that’s a tourist attraction near Al-Ain. What’s of interest there? Well, it’s a friggin HILL OK? You don’t get no hills for leagues around this place.
Development at the top of Jebel Hafeet – Fancy that, a tower crane?
A restaurant, or more like THE restaurant at the foot of Jebel Hafeet
Here’re pictures of Al-Ain a typical oasis town in this part of the world (I presume). It’s a part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi and is about an hour’s drive inland from here in Dubai. It sits just across the border with the Buraimi oasis of Oman. There're no lakes, no visible water body of any kind as far as I’d seen. But yes, there’re palm trees, date palms to be precise, swaths of it all over town, especially at the location that looks like the middle of an oasis in the map. Went all over the place looking for the oasis, and what do I find, a freaking date palm plantation that looks almost exactly like our oil palm estates.
Al-Ain Palace Museum – see those palm trees at the back just behind the palace wall? That, is the oasis of Al-Ain.
This place used to be a palace for the ruling clan of Abu Dhabi (hence the name Palace Museum)
Anu and a museum / palace guard
The road to Jebel Hafeet, a hill of crumbling rocky outcrops that’s a tourist attraction near Al-Ain. What’s of interest there? Well, it’s a friggin HILL OK? You don’t get no hills for leagues around this place.
Development at the top of Jebel Hafeet – Fancy that, a tower crane?
A restaurant, or more like THE restaurant at the foot of Jebel Hafeet
No comments:
Post a Comment