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Exploring the Emirates: Al Madam ghost town

Photo: Tania Rodrigues

Al Madam is an inland town of the Emirate of Sharjah, the UAE. Located at the intersection of the Dubai-Hatta and Mleiha-Shwaib roads. Al Madam  is also known by the name of Ghost Town.

57 min (78.5 km) via Dubai – Fujairah Rd/Maliha – Fujairah Rd/Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Rd/E84

The village of Al Madam is being gradually reclaimed by the desert. The ‘buried village’ of Al Madam  was once home to the Al Ketbi tribe, before it was abandoned in 1999.

The place is very windy and a lot of sand blowing in non stop toward the houses could have been a reason for driving away the villagers.

Some locals attribute the abandonment to the lack of infrastructure and electricity. A widely held belief behind the abandonment of the village is that place is haunted by a notorious group of “djinns” – the supernatural beings that are said to possess places and people.

Construction of the houses began in the late 1970s. The village consists of two rows of identical houses and a mosque.

Then in 1999 the Sharjah government built new homes for the residents and provided financial compensation to relocate them.

 

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