Al Ain is called the Garden City, and the Al Muwaiji area gives you the reason. Inside a ring of mud-brick walls, date palms grow thick and tall, shading small plots of vegetables, citrus trees and fodder, watered by the old irrigation channels called aflaj. These are underground and open channels that bring water from the hills, some of them used for around three thousand years, and the system is still in use. UNESCO included the oases of Al Ain in its 2011 listing of the area's cultural sites, alongside the Bronze Age tombs of Hafit and Hili.
Walking into the oasis, you leave the heat and traffic behind in about thirty seconds. The air is cooler and damper and smells of earth, dates and wet leaves, and the light comes through the fronds in patches. The lanes are narrow and the walls are high, and this is one of those places that feel secret even though it sits in the middle of a city. Visit early, before the day warms up, and expect a very quiet atmosphere.
Close by stands the Al Muwaiji Fort, a square mud-brick building from the twentieth century. It was the home of the ruling family and is known as the birthplace of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the United Arab Emirates, who was born here in 1918. The fort is now a museum, and you can see the old rooms, and learn how the family lived before oil changed everything.
For riding, the surrounding city is a grid of wide, well-kept roads with lots of roundabouts, and traffic is moderate. The population is large, and Al Ain has fuel stations on every main road, plenty of cafes, and a range of places to stay. Summer is hot beyond comfort, with temperatures above forty-five degrees, so the cooler season, from November to March, is the one to choose. Dress modestly when visiting heritage sites, and ask before taking photographs of people.