Al Ain Oasis

Liz and I are enjoying the cooler weather here in Al Ain. It's also winter vacation at university just now, so I have three weeks off work. And so, it seemed like the perfect time to get out and see a bit more of this oasis city of ours. First stop (and not entirely original or surprising...): the Al Ain Oasis.
The oasis is basically like a date palm plantation in the centre of the city. It is divided up into privately-owned plots. You can drive through the oasis is a few minutes, but we decided to walk it and take our time. It was really pretty and tranquil. You could easily forget that you were in the middle of a desert, what with the cool shade, refreshing breeze, the birdsong and the sound of running water. The oasis uses an ancient irrigation system called a "falaj". It's potentially really interesting if you're into that sort of thing. I just really liked the sound of the running water and the feeling of having stepped back in time.

Our journey on this day didn't actually start at the oasis. The truth is that we had intended to visit the Al Jahili Fort first, and THEN the oasis (since the fort is more or less right next to the oasis) but when we reached the fort, it became apparent that this was the day they were packing up after the three-day "International Festival of Falconry", and so the fort was surrounded by scaffolding, trucks, portaloos, and empty tents. It wasn't exactly a good day for taking pretty pictures of the old fort, and then, to top things off, the fort turned out to be closed to the public, but they said it would reopen the next day, so some day soon we will re-visit the fort and post on that.

Next to the Al Jahili Fort there is a beautiful park. So clean and green. It's amazing sometimes to see how much green there really is here in the middle of the Arabian desert (thanks to expensive irrigation). For some reason we didn't take any pictures in the park, so we'll be sure to do that next time we're there. So, after that it was on to the oasis.

The entrance to the oasis (or at least the one we found... I think there might be others) was rather imposing, and we weren't sure at first if we could just walk on in, but we gave it a go, and the security guards said good morning and told us it was fine to enter.

Once inside, the oasis was exactly as you might expect - a quiet, relaxing oasis of cool green. I was actually amazed at how green and almost meadow-like it was in places!

Liz and I stuck to the paved paths... but it was still a little maze-like at times.

Arabic is such a beautiful language. I would love to be able to read and write Arabic like this, but sadly, this sign was of no help to us.

Here you can see the "falaj" irrigation system. It's like little drains running through the entire oasis, connecting up with other drains, some blocked off and others filled with flowing water.

We also came across this tiny mosque in the middle of the oasis. I guess even the farmers need to pray.

The oasis was a really nice place to visit, and although there isn't really much to "do" there, it's worth a look if for nothing else than to get out of the hot, hustle and bustle of down-town Al Ain. Next time you bite into an Al Ain date, think of these pictures. Your date just might have come from this oasis.