UAE Stories and Cultural Learning: The Desert
UAE is commonly mistaken to be a very dry, arid location, but in reality, nothing could be further from the truth! Desert is certainly a dominant landscape in the Emirates, from the massive sandy dunes in the Empty Quarter to the flat gravel plains stretching towards the mountains.
Seemingly forbidding and hostile, this desert environment is an extremely beautiful place and it is not quite as empty as we imagine. The areas of the UAE, away from the modern urban centers, may appear to be unpopulated and rather featureless spaces.
However, for the Emiratis, these are the places that saw the origins of their people and where their long and distinguished history had been enacted.
The nomadic and proud Bedouins were the earliest inhabitant of this desert region who traveled the dunes with their herds of camel, sheep and goats, striving to survive through the UAE’s sweltering summers by managing extreme climate conditions.
The UAE is one of the world’s largest sand deserts, with its 84,000 square kilometers, its skyscraping dunes, and otherworldly salt flats stretching from the Arabian Gulf coast to the Empty Quarter, the largest contiguous sand erg in the world, to the east of the Hajar Mountains. For thousands of years, this territory has resisted settlement as one of the earth’s hottest, driest, and most hostile environments.
No other landscape holds so many secrets as the desert; a desert sunset is enthralling and enchanting, as the sun rises or sets and brings shadows across the dunes, the rainbow of the Empty Quarter reveals itself.
The sand ripples in a variety of colors according to the minerals present: deep reds and autumnal oranges alternating with soft pinks and yellows.
The desert is home to many species: Falcons, camels, spiders, scorpions, snakes, sand foxes, oryx, sand, gazelles, and a variety of birds all call this bare environment home.
The most dazzling amenity is perhaps the simple silence of the surroundings, but there are activities that tear into that silence like camping and dune bashing.
The friendliest and most accessible frontier of the Empty Quarter is only a two-hour drive from central Abu Dhabi to the Liwa Oasis.
You have to be intrigued. By the desert when you live in this country.
Wondering what happens at night and how it look in the early hours of the morning. From a distance, the desert dunes look like massive waves moving constantly with hidden whirlpools that can pull you underneath an ocean of sand.
As young children, we always searched for quick sand whenever we went camping and sometimes pretended that we were caught in one of them and thus had to remain still or we would be all swallowed by this sandy jaw. Those of course were kid’s games and pranks meant either to scare the little ones or to have a story to tell later to our parents! Camping was such an adventure we looked forward to practicing in the winter months. We could pack tents, water, food, cutlery, blankets, mats, and flash lights. Family cars would go in batches, the first car would scout the best place to camp, set the tents and start the fire.
Then they tried to find a landmark on the street to guide the family into the secret hideaway. It could be a weird looking tree at the highway and you could pass it easily, but that was part of the fun, searching for the clue to our secret place.
Then family cars would start arriving like dhows sailing into a deserted island carrying life necessities and supplies. The calmness of the surrounding environment gives you a feeling of dropping an anchor and slowing your pace.
Source: UAE 101 Stories and cultural learning
