8 places
The UAE's highest hilltop fort, rebuilt after 1819, looks over palm groves and the sea from the top of a steep stair.
One of the oldest and largest forts in the country, dating to the 16th century, on a rocky hill against the mountains.
A public garden built around the Hili Grand Tomb, a 4,000-year-old ring of carved stone 12 metres across.
Quieter than the big oasis, with a 1930s souq, a mud-brick tower turned arts centre and a 4,000-year-old tomb on its edge.
Thirty rebuilt mud, stone and barasti buildings, watchtowers from the 1880s and a falaj-fed palm farm, free to wander in the Hajar.
The square fort where Sheikh Khalifa was born, with a glass exhibition hall inside the courtyard and a 21,000-palm oasis behind it.
An 1890s mud-brick fort with a room of Wilfred Thesiger's Empty Quarter photographs, set in a park you can picnic in.
Shaded lanes run through 1,200 hectares of date palms watered by falaj channels that still work after 3,000 years.