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Garden City of the Gulf

Abu Dhabi


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His Highness, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United

Arab Emirates and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Published by Motivate Publishing

Dubai: PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE

Tel: (+971 4) 282 4060; ax: (+971 4) 282 7898e-mail: [email protected] www.booksarabia.com

Oce 508, Building No 8, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE

Tel: (+971 4) 390 3550; ax: (+971 4) 390 4845

Abu Dhabi: PO Box 43072, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Tel: (+971 2) 677 2005; ax: (+971 2) 677 0124

London: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER

e-mail: [email protected]

Directors: Obaid Humaid Al TayerIan Fairservice

Consultant Editor: David Steele

Editors: Albert Harvey PincisMoushumi Nandy

Assistant Editor: Zelda Pinto

Art Director: Andrea WillmoreSenior Designer: Cithadel Francisco

Designer: Charlie Banalo

General Manager Books: Jonathan Griths

First published 1988

Second edition 1990

Third edition 1992

Reprinted 1994, 1995Fourth edition 1999

Fith edition 2003

Sixth edition 2008

Motivate Publishing

All rights reserved. No part o this publication may be reproduced in any material orm (including photocopying or storing in any medium byelectronic means) without the written permission o the copyright holders. Applications or the copyright holders written permission to reproduceany part o this publication should be addressed to the publishers. In accordance with the International Copyright Act 1956 and the UAE Federal

Law No. (7) o 2002, Concerning Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, any person acting in contravention o this will be liable to criminalprosecution and civil claims or damages.

ISBN: 978 1 86063 192 4

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record or this book is available rom the British Library.

Printed by Rashid Printers & Stationers LLC, Ajman, UAE

Photographic Credits

Abu Dhabi Airports Company: 49

Abu Dhabi Duty Free: 92/93

ADCO: 24T, 24B, 28

ADNOC: 52, 53Ali, Mohammad Aran: 64

Arabian Eye: 8, 9

Codrai, Ronald: 50

Gallo Images/Getty Images: 20, 21,22, 23, 27, 39, 44/45

Hellyer, Peter: 54

Gulpics: 19

Newington, Greg: 4, 6/7, 11, 12,

14, 40, 83Salik, Farooq: 42

Shankar, Adisehan: 66, 67, 78

Walsh, Callaghan: 1, 88

Rashid, Noor Ali: 29Steele, David: Front cover, back

cover, 10, 13, 17, 18, 30, 31, 35,

36, 47, 60, 61, 63, 65, 68, 69,

70/71, 72, 73, 77, 86, 87, 91

Sunshine Tours: 74, 75TotalFinaEl: 51

Victory Team: 76

Willmore, Andrea: 32

Zandi, Dariush: 56, 84w


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Foreword

By Sheikh Nahayan bin Mabarak Al Nahayan

It is my pleasure to introduce this new and updated edition oAbu Dhabi

Garden City of the Gulf.

Like its previous versions, this book presents an interesting portrait o the city

o Abu Dhabi. It is a story o the place and its people that captures the importanteatures o the citys development, history, character and achievements.

We are very proud o the advances that Abu Dhabi continues to make in all

spheres o lie. Our city is one o the worlds best places to live and work. It is

also an excellent place or business and commerce.

Our greatest ortune in Abu Dhabi has been that the leaders o our country

are people o wisdom and vision. We are extremely ortunate that Sheikh Zayed

bin Sultan Al Nahyan was our ounding President. Sheikh Zayed was a man o

peace and progress. He was able to see beyond the horizon and chart a path or

our countrys uture. He led the building o our country as a place that welcomes

people rom round the world, a place o harmony and saety, and a land where

we see lush greenery where once there was only desert. Sheikh Zayed led the

creation o the physical inrastructure that ensures or our citizens modern

conveniences roads, schools, hospitals, airports and telecommunications.

Just as important, he led the creation o our social inrastructure that values

knowledge, peace and global understanding. The wise and strong leadership o

Sheikh Zayed made Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates places o progress,

prosperity and stability.

We are ortunate, as well, that ater Sheikh Zayeds passing, the leadership o

our country passed to His Highness Sheikh Khalia bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who

shares the values o his ather and continues his vision. And, especially pertinent

to this publication, we also have the able leadership o His Highness Sheikh

Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince o Abu Dhabi and Deputy

Supreme Commander o the Armed Forces. Under the enlightened leadership o

both Sheikh Khalia and Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Dhabi is moving orward with

deliberate strategies or the uture. Under their leadership, Abu Dhabi is

committed to creating a knowledge society, to boosting creativity and innovation,

and to learning rom successul experiences round the globe. As we watch Abu

Dhabi grow into one o the important global cultural and economic centres, we

all share in the keen awareness o what this wonderul city has come to represent

in its unique blend o modernity, history and heritage.

I take this opportunity to reiterate my strong belie that i our past, our

heritage and our present are any indication o our uture, Abu Dhabi will

continue to refect the unique spirit and character that has guided its

development over the years. All o us who live and work in Abu Dhabi are proud

to be part o that spirit and to embody that character.

Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan

Minister o Higher Education and Scientifc Research

United Arab Emirates

Front cover: Abu Dhabi,

the Garden City o the

Gul, has some 20 well-

maintained parks.

Title page: Modern Abu

Dhabi is a cosmopolitan,

high-rise city, but its

oundations are frmly

rooted in the Islamic aith.

Opposite page: Traditional

fshing dhows moored in

the Dhow Harbour east oAbu Dhabi Corniche.

Following spread: The Al

Maqtaa Bridge links the

island o Abu Dhabi with

its hinterland. The old

watchtower previously

guarded a causeway at

the same point.


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Contents

The United Arab Emirates 8

Ruler and President 2

The Land, its Heritage and People 30

A Thriving Economy 39

The Oil-and-Gas Sector 50

A Green and Pleasant Emirate 63

Abu Dhabis Leisure Industry 74

The World on Display 86


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Abu Dhabi Garden City of the Gulf

9

The United Arab Emirates


Chapter One

In March 1968, the rulers o seven sheikhdoms known as the Trucial States, on

the south-eastern ank o the Arabian Peninsula, came together to orm a

ederation. In the nature o such moves, it took a little while beore the structure

o the new state was fnally agreed, but on 2 December 1971 a new country, the

United Arab Emirates (UAE), took its place on the international stage.

Emerging ater a British presence in the region that had lasted a century and a

hal, the seven were disparate in size, population and resources, the smallest,

Ajman, being a mere 259 square kilometres and the largest, Abu Dhabi, about

80,000 square kilometres. The total population in 1968 was only around 180,000,

and much o the country had no roads, no schools, no hospitals, and little in the

way o a modern developed inrastructure, even though the discovery o oil a ew

years earlier held out the hope o better things to come.

The seven rulers, led by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Ruler o the largest

o the sheikhdoms, Abu Dhabi, elt that they had little option but to agree to orm

their ederation, or the British had made it clear that nothing would delay their

departure at the end o 1971. With varying degrees o enthusiasm and confdence,

the new state and its leaders set out to ace the challenges o the uture.

Many outside observers, citing poverty, history and the oten tempestuous seas

o Middle East politics, gave the new state little chance o success. As is so oten

the case, however, the oretellers o doom were proven wrong. In the years that

have ollowed, the United Arab Emirates has undergone a rapid process o

economic development and social change that has occurred against a backdrop

o an enviable internal stability, despite the impact o two major wars and

revolution in the region. This transormation has been assisted by a mass

immigration o expatriate workers that has seen the total population climb to

nearly our and a hal million.

The citizens o the UAE, which comprises the Emirates o Abu Dhabi, Dubai,

Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm al-Qaiwain and Ajman, have seen their

Under the new ag o

the United Arab Emirates

are, rom let: Sheikh

Khalid bin Mohammed AlQasimi, Sheikh Rashid

bin Saeed Al Maktoum,

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan,

Sheikh Rashid bin

Humaid Al Nuaimi,

Sheikh Mohammed bin

Hamad Al Sharqi and

Sheikh Rashid bin

Ahmed Al Mualla.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan

Al Nahyan signs the

Federation Agreement on

2 December 1971, givingbirth to the United Arab

Emirates. On his let is

Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed

Al Maktoum and behind

them are Mehdi Al Tajir,

Sheikh Maktoum bin

Rashid Al Maktoum and

Sheikh Hamdan bin

Rashid Al Maktoum.


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lives change completely within the space o a generation. Indeed, more than hal

o the countrys citizens have been born since 1971, and have known nothing

else but ederation.

The speed o the transormation, and the way in which it has been absorbed,is particularly remarkable because the liestyle o the people, in what is now the

Emirates, had remained almost unchanged or hundreds, perhaps thousands o

years a lie o unrelenting struggle to live in one o the worlds most unyield-

ing environments.

The old ways involved survival in the heat o summer in one o the most

austere deserts on earth, on the edge o the Rub al-Khali (The Empty Quarter), or

in the Hajar Mountains, where a brie respite during winter rains was soon

orgotten amid the baked and barren rocks. Survival, on land at least, was a

matter o pastoral nomadism or scratching a living rom small agricultural plots;

the sea oered more in the way o resources, such as the world-amous pearls o

the Gul, but collecting them was a task to test even the most hardy.

Yet against this most uncompromising o backgrounds, the people o the

Emirates have managed to survive, winning or their country an important place

on the map o international maritime commerce, with Emirati sailors venturing to

East Arica and China as ar back as 2,000 years ago.

Today, the UAE is one o the worlds top oil producers and, thanks to the

wealth rom oil and gas production and, more importantly, to the way in which

the countrys leaders have utilized that wealth or the beneft o the people, the

hardships o the past are a ading memory. While the people o the UAE continue

to derive much o the strength o their society rom the heritage o a difcult

past, they are now able, with confdence, to look orward to a prosperous uture.

Abu DhabiThe Emirate o Abu Dhabi, which has provided the overwhelming bulk o the

unds that have paid or the ederations development, is by ar the largest o the

seven emirates, with an area o 80,000 square kilometres, 17 times larger than the

second Emirate o Dubai, and amounting to more than 86 per cent o the total

area o the ederation.

It has the largest population,1.7 million out o a total o 4.32 million,according to the latest census, and also has the lions share o the UAEs oil and

gas resources. Though producing around 2.7-million barrels a day in early 2007,

it has plans to increase capacity to around 3.5-million barrels a day by 2010 and

eventually to around our million. It also has sufcient reserves or more than 100

years at present production rates, as well as the worlds ourth-largest reserves o

natural gas.

Once a major power in south-eastern Arabia (see The Land, its Heritage and

People), Abu Dhabi ell upon hard times in the 1930s and 1940s, partially as a

result o the international economic depression and the Second World War that

ollowed, and partially because o the introduction o the Japanese cultured

pearl, which destroyed the market or Abu Dhabis most prized export the pure,

natural Gul pearl.

Ironically, oil, the source o the economic miracle that has since changed the

ace o Abu Dhabi and the other emirates, was also frst produced rom beneath

the sea or rather the seabed.

Oil exploration in Abu Dhabi commenced in the late 1940s, although the frst

oil well, drilled at Ras Sadr, north-east o Abu Dhabi, in 1950, was a dry hole. It

was not until the late 1950s that commercially viable oil deposits were ound,

frst oshore, at Umm Shai, then onshore, at Bab. Exports commenced in 1962

and Abu Dhabi entered the oil era.

In 1966, a ew years later, Sheikh Zayed became the Ruler o the Emirate and

the process o development got ully under way. In the years that have passed

since then, the Emirate has been transormed, and, thanks to the generosity o

Sheikh Zayed, and, since his death in 2004, o his successor, His Highness Sheikh

Khalia bin Zayed Al Nahyan, now also the UAEs President, its oil and gas

Glass-clad skyscrapers

provide a unique backdrop

to the ubiquitous date

palms in one o the

many pleasant parks in

the city o Abu Dhabi.

A dramatic view o the

rugged Hajar Mountains,

the main chain o

mountains o the United

Arab Emirates and the

backbone o Arabia.


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revenues have also underpinned development elsewhere in the country.

The city o Abu Dhabi has, naturally, attracted a large proportion o the

development expenditure, some o the results o which can be seen in the pages

that ollow. At the time that the production o oil began, it was little more than a

coastal village and one which, moreover, appeared to have changed little in

centuries, thanks to the economic slump that ollowed the collapse o the

pearling industry.

A comparison between pictures rom that time and those o the city today

show clearly the extent o the remarkable change that has taken place. Amid the

skyscrapers and broad thoroughares o the city today only three buildings rom

the past survive, one a simple watchtower that still stands like a sentinel at the

approaches to the island, and another Qasr al-Hosn, the old ort and ormerancestral home o the ruling Al Nahyan amily, beore becoming the governments

Centre or Documentation and Research and now destined to become a

showpiece museum o the recent past.

Abu Dhabi or many years appeared to lack some o the commercial verve o

its neighbour Dubai, although that has changed markedly in recent years, but it

has had the advantage not only o its oil and gas revenues but also o massive

fnancial reserves.

In recent years, a move towards the privatization o key sectors o the state-

owned economy has been coupled with an innovative osets programme that

requires companies winning major military contracts to invest part o the

proceeds in productive industrial ventures; and, since 2005, the launching o a

massive investment programme, both rom the government and rom the private

sector, in residential property development, new industries and expansion o

acilities such as hotels and a new airport, as well as a major initiative to make

the city an international cultural capital. Building on the basis established in the

frst our decades o oil production, a new phase o expansion is now getting

under way.

At the same time, its dozens o parks, gardens and well-planted roadsides have

given the city a green image that has, with justifcation, earned it the nickname

o Garden City o the Gul.

The Emirate o Abu Dhabi is, however, much more than just the city itsel.

Roughly 160 kilometres east o the city lies its inland counterpart o Al Ain (itsel

the subject o another book in the Arabian Heritage Series:Al Ain Oasis City).

A conurbation o nearly 400,000 people, Al Ain is the heart o the Emirates

agricultural region, with arms and palm groves yielding tens o thousands o

tonnes o produce a year, continuing an agricultural tradition that stretches backat least to the early Bronze Age, more than 5,000 years ago.

South-west o Abu Dhabi is the Liwa Oasis, an arc o oases more than 50

kilometres in length on the very edge o the Empty Quarter that is the traditional

home o the Bani Yas tribal conederation, today headed by President Sheikh

Khalia. To the north o Liwa is the burgeoning township o Medinat (Bida)

Zayed, capital o the Emirates Western Region, which provides a good centre or

touring the surrounding deserts, although the inexperienced should always take

care when driving o-road.

The Emirates coast begins at Ghantoot, in the north-east, running south-west

past the huge Taweela power and water-desalination plant, with the site or the

new Khalia Port and Industrial Zone nearby, and a sheltered system o lagoons

and inshore islands (some now the sites or new residential property

developments), that stretch to the capital, Abu Dhabi, itsel also on an island,

though with suburbs rapidly developing on the adjacent mainland.

Qasr al-Hosn also

known as The White Fort

is destined to become

a showpiece museum

and the cultural heart

o the nation.

Attab Fort, between the

village o Hmeem and

the town o Meziyrah, is

a fne example o the

recently renovated orts

in the Liwa Crescent.

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