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There
are many places outside
Dubai
that
are worth visiting on a holiday in the UAE.
In the last decade a large number of
interesting museums and exhibitions have
been established in the Northern Emirates.
One of the oldest and very interesting
museums is that of Ras al Khaimah. Located
in an old fort in the centre of town, both
the collections and their "home"
are attractive.
In front of the building a few imposing
canons welcome the visitor. The entrance
is a narrow winding corridor, the usual
defense against intruders. The first room
just off this entrance is a majlis
in the old style. Even though the
furniture and artefacts date back many
years, this majlis
is still used for occasional meetings and
receptions of V.I.P. visitors.
The narrow corridor gives way to a cobbled
courtyard with a huge tree providing
shade. The courtyard is worth a close look
as quite a few fossils can be found in the
stones that pave the area. All the rooms
of the fort are used for collections (and
a few offices). The finds from the various
archeological digs take up most of the
space and are extremely interesting and
varied. There is also a natural history
collections, mainly of shells. And on the
second floor there is a collection of
ancient weapons, clothes, household
utensils and documents. Personally, I like
the account of Vasco da Gama that is
reproduced in one of the showcases. It
describes his journey along the Batinah
and Ras al Khaimah coast and mentions such
places as Dibba and Julfar.
Driving south along the coast the two
coastal towns of Umm al Quwain and
Ajman
have turned their main forts into museums too. The renovations have
been done tastefully and the collections
of local artifacts and archeological finds
provide an insight into the life of the
people that used to live in these parts of
the country. The
Ajman
museum
has a collection of dried herbs with
medicinal uses on show that would be very
interesting if more information about
their uses had been given.
It is when you get to Sharjah that you are
in for a surprise. Sharjah, which earned
the accolade "Cultural Capital of the
Arab World for the year 1997", has
taken a lead in the establishment of
state-of-the-art museums.
First in the extensive row of museums was
the Sharjah Natural History Museum, which
opened late 1995. Inside an
unprepossessing building are stunning
exhibits. The first hall contains a 17
meter long diorama of the various habitats
of the Sharjah emirate: from the Batinah
coast and the Khor Kalba mangrove forest
through the peaks and wadis of the Hajar
Moutains to the high fossil-bearing hills
of Mileiha to the lower sand dunes and the
coastal lowlands. On the opposite side of
the hall are boards illustrating desert
adaptations of plants and animals as well
as food chains and a revolving panel of
photographs of some of the country's wild
flowers. In between these are smaller
dioramas with local mammals and birds
preserved by taxidermy.
The next hall features a showstopper: the
mechanical camel, highlighting the amazing
properties of this "ship of the
sands". Very interesting also is a
small showcase with a so-called Pepper's
ghost exhibit, where a pristine desert
landscape turns into an area polluted with
plastic bags, aluminum cans and other
rubbish in front of your eyes.
Next, the tour leads you along two floors
of geology: movies of earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, the movement of
tectonic plates throughout millions of
years, and the creation of the universe
through the "Big Bang" are
interspersed with exhibits of rocks and
fossils found locally and abroad. Some of
the fossils displayed are stunning and
recreations of what parts of Sharjah
looked like when they were still covered
by the sea are equally amazing.
After the many visual and auditory stimuli
of the geology halls, the botany hall
provides a welcome pause. Two small movie
theatres show movies in the wild flora of
the emirate and on agricultural
activities. Computer games let you clean
the desert of blue plastic bags and a
botanical database shows many of the local
wildflowers with descriptions and
photographs. The last hall is the
beautiful marine hall, where you walk on
the bottom of the sea, and observe the
underwater world without even getting wet.
Several movies show marine life in actions
and static exhibitions feature many of the
local fish, as well as a dugong (sea cow),
turtles and sea snakes. Small showcases
contain shell collections donated by
expatriate residents of the UAE.
The museum also houses a herbarium of
local plants and study collections of
insects, rocks and fossils. Behind the
museum is a garden of local wild plants
and opposite a children's farm or petting
zoo with local domestic livestock.
Also on the site of the
Sharjah
Desert
Park
are the
Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian
Animals (which is not open to the public)
and
Arabia
's Wildlife Centre - a modern zoo that has live exhibits of many of the
local reptiles, mammals and insects.
The archeological
Museum
of
Sharjah
was designed by the same firm that did the
Natural
History
Museum
and
features many hands-on computer programs
as well as dioramas of life in ancient
days besides the more usual exhibits of
finds from the many digs in the emirate.
Some of the items are amazing in their
beauty and details. My personal favourite
is in the last hall: there is a
description of a site near Mileiha, where
a camel and a horse were found buried
close to a human grave. The horse was
adorned with a pure gold headdress. A
movie is shown in which some beautiful
Arabian horses gallop through the desert
with their riders, while one of the horses
is wearing the headdress. The scene is one
of breath-taking beauty: the empty desert,
the supple and powerful muscles of the
horses, the billowing clothes of the
riders, and the headdress glinting in the
sun. Then, in a very dramatic way a beam
of light suddenly shows up the glass case
that contains the actual headdress in all
its glory.
The Sharjah Science Museum and Learning
Centre (nextdoor to the Aracheological
Museum) and Sharjah Childrens' Museum
(opposite the airport) cater especially to
young residents, taking them on
interesting hands-on tours of learning in
many fields as varied as human anatomy,
traffic behaviour and scientific
experiments. Special activity workshops
are organised in which children can build
bridges, make paper and grow things, to
name only a few. A planetarium in the
Science
Museum
is also worth a visit.
The
Sharjah
Police
Museum
dates
back to 1993 and is full of weapons,
combat gear and old uniforms. Even an old
police car is on display. The museum is a
tribute to the police force that protected
the residents of Sharjah and promoted
peace and stability in the area.
Other museums in Sharjah include the Fort
(Al Hisn), which was rebuilt in 1966 after
it was nearly completely destroyed in
previous years. The restoration was done
using old photographs, descriptions from
documents and local knowledge provided by
elderly Sharjah residents. It has many
rooms and corridors with countless
weapons, household items, jewellery and
traditional clothing. A drawback for
foreign visitors is the poor quality of
the English used in the signage.
The nearby Islamic museum holds a large
collection of ancient coins and documents;
all from the private collection of HH Dr.
Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed al Qasimi, the
Ruler of Sharjah. The same applies to the
Art Museum on the other side of the Burj
road, where a permanent collection
consists of fine examples of Orientalist
art collected by the Ruler. Rotating
exhibits of all kinds of art are organised
all the time in the Art museum. In my
view, a visit to these exhibits is
enhanced by the wonderful architecture of
the exhibition halls.
The whole quarter around the Fort has been
restored to give an impression of what
Sharjah looked like in the old days. Small
alleys between white washed walls are lit
by old lanterns and lead to tree-shaded
courtyards. A recreation of the old suq
holds souvenir shops as well as small
grocers. Several houses were restored,
such as the Majlis al Naboodah and the
Majlis of Ibrahim Mohammed al Midfa, as
well as the old hospital (Beit al Sarkat)
that used to provide health care for local
people 50 years ago.
The museums of the Northern Emirates
should be seen by everyone who lives in
this country, so that they can gain an
insight in both the cultural and natural
heritage of the country while children
especially can learn about all kind of
things both ancient and modern.
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