7 of 10 places fit
The restored old town, with Souq Al Arsah, Bait Al Naboodah and the Sharjah Heritage Museum in coral-stone houses, free to walk and about AED 10 per museum.
The Hili Grand Tomb is more than 4,000 years old and 12 metres across, set in a park that also holds Iron Age falaj channels and village walls.
Sheikh Khalifa's birthplace, with a glass exhibition hall in the courtyard telling the fort's story next to Al Ain's smallest oasis.
Reopened on 26 October 2026 after a rebuild, with artisans working at the old crafts and a view of the Corniche skyline across the water.
Built for Sheikh Zayed the First in the 1890s, it now holds a permanent exhibition of Wilfred Thesiger's Empty Quarter photographs.
Shaded lanes run through date palms still watered by the falaj channels that made Al Ain a UNESCO site, right in the middle of town.
The watchtower inside is the oldest building in the city, and the fort's rooms trace Abu Dhabi from a pearling village to a capital.