11 of 12 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.
An abandoned coral-stone pearling town, mosque, fort and souq included, that you can walk through freely, with a free guided tour on weekends.
The only hilltop fort left in the UAE, reached by 239 steps, with a view over the palm groves and the sea.
The oldest mosque still in use in the UAE, a small mud and stone building with four domes, and a short climb to watchtowers on the hill behind it.
The first traditional carved-stone Hindu temple in the region, and the evening Ganga Aarti at 7:30pm is worth timing your visit around.
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.
About 30 restored mud and palm-frond buildings, an 1896 fort with a weapons display in its tower, and a date-syrup press, free.
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.