Jebel Hafit rises out of the flat desert on the border between Oman and the United Arab Emirates like a long, pale whale, and the ground around its foot is dotted with small stone domes. These are the Hafit tombs, built about five thousand years ago, and they give their name to an entire period of the Bronze Age in the region. Rumailah is one of the clusters on the Omani side, a short distance from the town of Al Buraimi, and from the site you can look across the border and see the ridge standing up in the haze.
The tombs are beehive-shaped, made from carefully piled limestone slabs, and each one probably held several burials. They were built on the lower slopes and ridges, in places visible from the plain, and archaeologists think they marked territory and ancestry as much as death. Nobody is sure who the builders were or where they lived, though the oases below must have supported them, and pottery and beads from the tombs show links with Mesopotamia and Iran. Some tombs have been restored and a few are still in surprisingly good shape.
Riding here is easy, hot and flat. Good tarmac runs through Al Buraimi, a town of about seventy thousand, where you will find fuel at many stations, cafes and shops, and the roads leading to the mountain are wide and quiet. Summer temperatures reach more than forty-five degrees and make midday riding miserable, so go between November and March, or start at dawn. Take water, sun protection and a hat, as there is no shade at the tombs.
Remember that the Omani and Emirati towns of Buraimi and Al Ain run into each other, and there is a border crossing in between, so keep your passport and vehicle papers with you. Rules for crossing with a foreign motorbike can be complicated, so check in advance. After dark, the ridge turns purple, and a cold drink in a Buraimi cafe is a good way to end the day.