United Arab Emirates History and Culture

Some of the oldest evidence of humans leaving Africa has been found at Jebel Faya in Sharjah, inscribed in 2025 as the Faya Palaeolandscape, a World Heritage Site. In the Bronze Age, the Umm an-Nar culture built round stone tombs and traded copper from the Hajar Mountains with Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The falaj irrigation channels of Al Ain, part of a World Heritage Site, have watered date groves for some three thousand years.

Ed-Dur in Umm Al Quwain and Mleiha in Sharjah were thriving towns in the centuries before Islam, which arrived in the 7th century. Julfar, near today's Ras Al Khaimah, became a great medieval port. For centuries, coastal communities lived from pearling, fishing and trade, while Bedouin tribes moved between oases. Ruling families such as the Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and the Al Maktoum of Dubai led their communities through these generations.

On December 2, 1971, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum led the founding of the United Arab Emirates, and Ras Al Khaimah joined in early 1972. Oil revenues built a modern nation that now leads in aviation, tourism, space and artificial intelligence. See the royal families of the Middle East, pearling history and the UAE Centennial 2071 vision.

The UAE sent a probe to orbit Mars in 2021, a first for the Arab world. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building on earth. Sheikh Zayed planted millions of trees, greening parts of the desert. Plan your trip with our UAE luxury travel guide, and explore Abu Dhabi, Sharjah's museums and the oasis city of Al Ain. In 2026 Wadi Wurayah in Fujairah, a mountain valley of waterfalls and pools, became the country's first natural World Heritage Site; see our Fujairah east coast guide.