History & heritage
Abu Dhabi: from the oases to the island capital
Bronze Age tombs at Al Ain, a fort of the 1760s, a pearling town and the union of 1971.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Darthjipsu · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsPeople have lived in the oases of what is now Abu Dhabi for thousands of years; the city itself grew from a pearling and fishing settlement around the watchtower of Qasr Al Hosn. Today it is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and its oldest stories are kept at the fort, in Al Ain and on Saadiyat.
At a glance
UNESCO: the Cultural Sites of Al Ain, with oases, Bronze Age settlements and 5,000-year-old tombs (Visit Abu Dhabi).
Oldest building in the city: Qasr Al Hosn, dated to the 1760s (Visit Abu Dhabi; qasralhosn.ae).
The UAE: formed on 2 December 1971 (u.ae).
The oases
Al Ain is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the region; its oases are still watered by falaj channels, and around them lie 5,000-year-old tombs and Bronze Age settlements now on UNESCO’s World Heritage List (Visit Abu Dhabi). At the foot of Jebel Hafit, remains reach back some 8,000 years to the Neolithic, and the Jebel Hafit tombs were excavated in 1959.
The fort and the pearl
On the island of Abu Dhabi, the settlement grew around Qasr Al Hosn, whose watchtower dates from the 1760s; the fort now tells the story of the city from a pearling settlement to a modern metropolis (qasralhosn.ae; Visit Abu Dhabi). Emirati culture, in Visit Abu Dhabi’s words, grew from the desert, the sea and Islam: desert traditions inland, pearling and fishing on the coast.
The union
The United Arab Emirates was formed on 2 December 1971, and Abu Dhabi is its capital (u.ae).
A watchtower of the 1760s still stands among the towers.
The city today
Abu Dhabi has spread across its islands: the museums of Saadiyat, where Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in 2017 and the Guggenheim opens on 11 December 2026, the towers of Al Maryah and the theme parks of Yas. On Sir Bani Yas Island, the ruins of an ancient church recall a much older chapter of the Gulf’s history (Visit Abu Dhabi).
Our advice: see Qasr Al Hosn and the House of Artisans in the city, then give a day to Al Ain’s oasis and the tombs at Hili.
Why it's on our list
- The oases
- The fort and the pearl
- The union
- The city today
Location
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More in depth
The back storyThe white city on the water: reading Abu Dhabi’s great sightsThe Grand Mosque, the Louvre’s dome, a fort of the 1760s and the islands: how to read Abu Dhabi.
The back storyUnder the dome: Abu Dhabi’s arts, from the Louvre to the GuggenheimThe Louvre’s rain of light, Zayed National Museum, 421, Frieze and the Abu Dhabi Festival.
The back storyWild Abu Dhabi: Flamingos, Mangroves, Turtles and OryxFlamingos at Al Wathba, kayaks in the mangroves, Saadiyat’s turtles and the oryx of Sir Bani Yas.