Travel 93 million years into the past at this spellbinding Sharjah attraction
Aside from the fascinating history, this place is just pure Insta-candy…
93 million years ago, the world was a very different place. Our planet was in its Cretaceous era, the continents of today would be barely recognisable on any hypothetical atlas of the time. It was an age of marauding dinosaurs, volatile geology, polar rainforests, and presumably really laggy internet.
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Sharjah, indeed most of the Arabian peninsula, was under a shallow shelf of seawater. It’s residents of the era – a thriving population of prehistoric marine life, and the formative rumblings of shifting tectonics that would eventually sire the region’s mountain ranges.
A portal into the UAE’s ancient past
Cut to the present day, precise location – the Al Madam area of Sharjah, not far from the famous ghost town of the same name; the stunning, architectural-award-winning, organically-inspired Buhais Geological Park (entrance Dhs10.50) blends into its surroundings with deliberately engineered polish. On the horizon, jagged Jabal peaks stand sentinel, below foot – the familiar desert scree-pocked sand. Picturing this place as a prototypical infinity pool requires an uncommon mind.
Buhais Geological Park was designed by renowned British firm Hopkins Architects (who also helped build EXPO 2020 and DIFC’s Gate Village) and was conceived to resemble the fossilised urchins – calcified clues of the area’s past – found on the site. The park offers several sheltered exhibition areas, which reveal more artefact-packed layers of Sharjan history.
The age of man
There are stone tools dating back 200,000 years, that’s beyond the timeline reach of what’s conventionally referred to as ‘modern homo sapiens’. You’ll see neolithic pottery fragments too, bronze arrow heads and other glimpses of man’s early artisinal work.
Book yourself a guided tour or explore the outdoor discovery trail at your own pace. Amongst the trail’s most dazzling relics, are the iron and bronze age tombs, and Ophiolite boulders.
Also on the site – there’s a cafe for refreshments; a theatre screening the ‘Sharjah Heritage Treasure‘ documentary; gift shop, information booth, mosque, and a children’s corner.
Al Madam, Sun to Mon, Wed to Thurs 09am to 07.30pm, Fri 02pm to 07.30pm, Sat 11am to 07.30pm. visitsharjah.com
Images: Hopkins Architects
