Sharjah

Souks, Heritage Areas, and the Old City

The Heart of Sharjah project has restored the old city quarter to something close to its pre-oil appearance, with wind-tower houses, coral-block walls, and narrow lanes that open unexpectedly onto courtyard mosques. The Blue Souk, formally the Central Market, is one of the most recognisable buildings in the UAE, its twin towers covered in blue mosaic tiles and its interior organised around two long arcade galleries selling carpets, jewellery, antiques, and handicrafts. The nearby Heritage Area clusters the Sharjah Fort, Al Hisn, around a square that also contains the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation, housed in a converted souk building with a turquoise dome. Alcohol is not permitted anywhere in the emirate, which sets a different social register from its neighbours and draws a large family-oriented residential population.

Two Coasts and a Desert Interior

Sharjah is the only emirate with territory on both the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, achieved through a series of enclaves on the east coast. Khor Fakkan sits on a natural bay backed by the Hajar Mountains and is home to one of the UAE's major container ports alongside a wide public beach that gets noticeably less crowded than anything in Dubai. Kalba, further south, borders Fujairah and contains the Khor Kalba nature reserve, where mangroves shelter a population of white-collared kingfishers found nowhere else on Earth. Back on the western coast, Al Qasba is a canalside entertainment district in Sharjah City where the Eye of the Emirates observation wheel rises above cafes and walkways along the water.

An Emirate at Its Own Pace

Sharjah borders Dubai so closely that the two cities form a continuous urban sprawl, and many people live in Sharjah and commute across the border daily. But the atmosphere on the Sharjah side is noticeably quieter. The corniche along Al Buheirah lagoon is lined with parks and walking paths that fill with families in the evenings. The Friday Market in Dhaid, an hour inland on the road toward the east coast, sells pottery, plants, and local produce from roadside stalls that have been operating in some form for generations. The date palm groves around Dhaid remain productive agricultural land, and the drive through the Hajar foothills between the west and east coasts passes wadis, forts, and the kind of unhurried landscape that rewards the curious traveller.