Sharjah · Arts & museums
Museum of Islamic Civilization
Astrolabes, manuscripts and a kiswah woven with gold thread, in a restored souk under a blue-tiled dome. The best single room in the country for understanding the region.
2 hoursAED 10 from
City · Sharjah
Khor Fakkan
Khor Fakkan belongs to Sharjah and sits on the east coast, on the Gulf of Oman, reached through the Hajar mountains. It is one of the country's exclaves, and the reason a visitor can drive ninety minutes from a Sharjah museum and end up on a different sea with a deep natural harbour and a corniche of its own.
What marks it out
- A deep natural harbour, and a corniche along it
- The Rifaisa dam road into the mountains behind the town
- Snorkelling water that is clearer than the Arabian Gulf side
Getting there
About ninety minutes from Dubai across the mountains, and twenty from Fujairah city along the coast.
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25.3390, 56.3550
Sharjah
Experiences in this emirate
Sharjah · Desert & dunes
Fossil dunes and Bronze Age tombs, Mleiha
One of the oldest recorded human presences outside Africa, in a landscape of petrified dunes. Guides here are archaeologists, not drivers.
Half dayAED 175 from
Sharjah · Coast & islands
Kalba's old mangroves by kayak
The oldest mangrove stand in the UAE, on the emirate's east-coast enclave. Kingfishers, turtles, and water flat enough to hear them.
3 hoursAED 140 from
What's on
What is on in this emirate
Culture
Sharjah International Book Fair
November
One of the largest book fairs in the world by footfall, with a fortnight of readings, translation deals and children's programming.
Free entry
Entry to the fair is free. The programme of talks and workshops is open to fair visitors.
Sharjah
Arts
Sharjah Light Festival
February
Projection works mapped onto mosques, museums and university façades across the emirate, free and after dark.
Free entry
Free and outdoors: the projections are on public buildings across the emirate, and the route is walkable.
Sharjah
Arts
Sharjah Biennial
Spring, every other year
The exhibition that made the emirate a fixture on the international art calendar, spread across restored courtyard houses.
Free entry
Entry to the exhibitions is free, across several venues; a few performances are ticketed.
Sharjah