Al Ain is called the Garden City, and the name is earned. It is a large, spread-out oasis town at the foot of Jebel Hafit, close to the border with Oman, and its green roundabouts, date plantations and tree-lined avenues look like a deliberate argument against the desert. The UNESCO cultural sites here bundle together a handful of places: the Hafit tombs, the Hili archaeological park, the Bidaa bint Saud area, and the oases of the town itself. The theme is human life in a dry land, over a very long time.
Start with the oldest layer. The beehive tombs on the slopes of Jebel Hafit date back some five thousand years, and the large round tombs at Hili belong to the Umm an-Nar culture of the Bronze Age, built from carefully cut stone with carved relief on some entrances. They sit in open ground and you can walk right up to them. Much later come the mudbrick forts, such as the Al Jahili Fort, built in the nineteenth century, which houses a museum and an exhibition on early desert exploration. The father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed, was born in the Al Ain area, and the story of the state is told in the local museums with some pride.
For riding, Al Ain gives you wide roads, orderly traffic and the great hairpin road up Jebel Hafit, which is one of the best known in the Gulf and a little tricky when it is crowded. Speed cameras are plentiful and fines are real, so keep to the limit. Summer heat is intense, over forty degrees most days, and the best time to be out is between late October and March, ideally early in the morning.
Fuel is everywhere. Al Ain has well over half a million people if you count the whole city, with shops, cafés and malls in air-conditioned comfort. Water and shade are the real essentials, so top up your bottle and take a break among the palms, where the temperature can feel ten degrees lower. Coffee is served in small cups, dates are offered as a sign of welcome, and you should accept both without fuss.