Why this ride
From Al Ain City it runs 81 km to Al Ain City; allow about 1 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs, Hili 2 and back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cultural Sites of Al Ain and Hili 2
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 81 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 49
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 26 km
- Named road
- Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cultural Sites of Al Ain
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.
Read the complete Cultural Sites of Al Ain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cultural Sites of Al Ain is where the day begins. Next is Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs.
2. Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs
Jebel Hafit rises out of the flat desert at the edge of Al Ain like a long, pale whale, and on its lower slopes sit some of the oldest buildings in the United Arab Emirates. These are beehive tombs, circular cairns of stacked stone, built around five thousand years ago in the early Bronze Age, which give their name to the Hafit period of Arabian prehistory. Dozens of them survive on the ridges and foothills, and the ones near the wildlife park are easy to reach, standing in the open on a spur of rock with the town on one side and the dry mountain on the other.
Read the complete Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hili 2.
3. Hili 2
Jebel Hafit rises out of the flat desert like a wall of grey limestone, and at its foot lie some of the oldest tombs in the Arabian Peninsula. Hili 2 is part of the archaeological park on the edge of Al Ain, in Abu Dhabi emirate, where beehive-shaped stone tombs were built around five thousand years ago, in what archaeologists call the Umm an-Nar period. The round towers of neatly cut stone, some with carved animals and human figures on the doorways, held collective burials, and the place is also home to remains of a Bronze Age settlement and ancient irrigation channels called falaj. The tombs, together with the oases and the hill, are part of the UNESCO listing of the cultural sites of Al Ain, inscribed in 2011.
Read the complete Hili 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Hili 2. Next is back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs.
4. back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs, late in the day. Next is Cultural Sites of Al Ain.
5. Cultural Sites of Al Ain
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cultural Sites of Al Ain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cultural Sites of Al Ain. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cultural Sites of Al Ain to Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs
Cultural Sites of Al Ain → Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs to Hili 2
Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs → Hili 2 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hili 2 to back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs
Hili 2 → back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs to Cultural Sites of Al Ain
back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs → Cultural Sites of Al Ain is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.