For a place so strongly associated with heritage and tradition, Al Ain has a history of innovation that has the ability to surprise.
From the Bronze Age tombs at Jebel Hafeet and Hili, to Al Ain’s cultivation during the Iron Age and the later development of its oases, fortified houses and irrigation systems, collectively known as aflaj, technology has shaped Al Ain’s landscape throughout the millennia.
Thanks to My Old House, however, a new initiative from the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, a double-decker bus is being used to introduce visitors to Al Ain’s largely overlooked modern heritage.
“We want people to come to see these houses because we need locals and foreign people to see Al Ain in a different way,” says Mariam Al Dhaheri, a public engagement programmer in the museums department at TCA.
“They need to come and look and touch the mud here and to discover Al Ain and the oases, so they can imagine how the families lived in these houses and how close they were to each other, without any television or media.”
A one-day equivalent of the architectural Open House Weekends that started in London but have since become a worldwide phenomenon, My Old House is a behind-the-scenes tour of historic buildings that are normally kept under lock and key.
They include the Bin Biduwa Al Darmaki House in Al Qattara and Bin Hamoodah Al Dhaheri house and mosque on the edge of Al Jimi Oasis.
As with the view from the upper deck of the tour bus, the vista afforded from the tower that defines the Bin Hamoodah house proves that a simple change of perspective can go a long way to unlocking Al Ain’s secrets.
Standing on the battlements, not only is it possible to understand that houses such as the Bin Hamoodah, which is believed to be more than 200 years old, were often built on defensive outcrops of higher land, their surrounding plantations appear to sit in the landscape because they were excavated.
The lesson may sound simple but it sheds light on the turbulent history that defined life in the region during the 17th and 18th centuries. It also reveals the manufactured nature of Al Ain’s apparently natural landscape and the enormous amount of labour and manpower that were required to create it.
Restored according to a set of conservation imperatives that are very different to those employed today, the Bin Hamoodah house’s impressive courtyard, towers and walls appear like new and stand in stark contrast to the tour’s other sites, which include the relatively modest Al Qubaisi House in Al Mutaredh.
Clad in construction hoardings and supported by scaffolding, this modest courtyard home sits opposite the construction site of the new Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Mosque and offers a lesson in Al Ain’s urban transformation.
As the tour’s guide explains, the earliest pre-oil phases of the house were built with traditional construction techniques and materials such as local limestone and plaster, while its later phases, which were added as the family grew wealthier, featured imported materials such as cement and concrete.
The work of Laila Prager, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Hamburg, focuses on the presentation of Emirati heritage and she joined the tour as part of her research.
“Modern heritage is a very different concept that people might associate with Abu Dhabi or Sharjah, but not so much with Al Ain,” says Prof Prager, who is presently a research fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi.
“I think it is very interesting to see what is being done to look after modern heritage here.”
Like Prof Prager, Maja Buterin is a fellow Abu Dhabi resident who visited Al Ain for the tour. But for the Croatian, the insights it offered were personal rather than professional.
“Abu Dhabi and Dubai are places full of skyscrapers and you don’t see how life was before, except in the heritage villages and some tourist places. So I came here to see real life and how people lived before,” she says.
“You know what? It’s really the same. Our old people in Croatia led a really similar life. It was a hard life but I think that was the case everywhere.”
If My Old House affords an unprecedented insight into the architectural history of Al Ain, it is the social and cultural insights afforded by the tour’s Emirati team and visitors that stay longest in the memory.
“It’s very important that people come to see these places, especially people from outside, because it is our tradition,” says Hamda Al Shamsi, 22, a business student from Abu Dhabi.
“This is my country and these are my traditions and I am proud that people can come and see how we lived before and I want everyone to see that.”
At the end of the tour, Ms Al Shamsi sits at the front of the tour bus chatting with Prof Prager and Jennifer Castro, a day tripper from Abu Dhabi. And as they talk, not about architecture but about everyday life, they sit as living proof of the power of public transport.
The top of a double decker can provide an education whether you are from Al Ain, Hamburg, Zagreb or Manila and the view is a fine thing indeed.
• The next My Old House tours are on March 8 and 9. For more details, contact the Al Ain National Museum on 03 711 8331
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Anna and the Apocalypse
Director: John McPhail
Starring: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Mark Benton
Three stars
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
THE LOWDOWN
Photograph
Rating: 4/5
Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies
Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz
In numbers
- Number of children under five will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401m in 2100
- Over-80s will rise from 141m in 2017 to 866m in 2100
- Nigeria will become the world’s second most populous country with 791m by 2100, behind India
- China will fall dramatically from a peak of 2.4 billion in 2024 to 732 million by 2100
- an average of 2.1 children per woman is required to sustain population growth
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
About Tenderd
Started: May 2018
Founder: Arjun Mohan
Based: Dubai
Size: 23 employees
Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital
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THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 1', Kane 8' & 16') West Ham United 3 (Balbuena 82', Sanchez og 85', Lanzini 90' 4)
Man of the match Harry Kane
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AIDA%20RETURNS
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THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)
Cagliari v AC Milan (6pm)
Lazio v Napoli (9pm)
Inter Milan v Atalanta (11.45pm)
Sunday
Udinese v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Sampdoria v Brescia (6pm)
Fiorentina v SPAL (6pm)
Torino v Bologna (6pm)
Verona v Genoa (9pm)
Roma V Juventus (11.45pm)
Parma v Lecce (11.45pm)
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
Ms Danial is a finance coach and former currency analyst who writes for Nasdaq. Her broad-strokes primer (2019) breaks down investing in cryptocurrency into baby steps, while explaining the terms and technologies involved.
Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
Begin your cryptocurrency journey here.
Available at Magrudy’s , Dh104
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
