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Transcript of Abu Dhabi - Garden City of the Gulf
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Garden City of the Gulf
Abu Dhabi
Peter Hellyer and Ian Fairservice
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Published by Motivate Publishing
Dubai: PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE
Tel: (+971 4) 282 4060; ax: (+971 4) 282 7898
e-mail: [email protected] www.booksarabia.com
Oce 508, Building No 8, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE
Tel: (+971 4) 390 3550; ax: (+971 4) 390 4845
Abu Dhabi: PO Box 43072, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Tel: (+971 2) 677 2005; ax: (+971 2) 677 0124
London: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER
e-mail: [email protected]
Directors: Obaid Humaid Al Tayer
Ian Fairservice
Consultant Editor: David Steele
Editors: Albert Harvey Pincis
Moushumi NandyAssistant Editor: Zelda Pinto
Art Director: Andrea Willmore
Senior Designer: Cithadel Francisco
Designer: Charlie Banalo
General Manager Books: Jonathan Griths
First published 1988
Second edition 1990
Third edition 1992
Reprinted 1994, 1995
Fourth edition 1999
Fith edition 2003Sixth edition 2008
Motivate Publishing
All rights reserved. No part o this publication may be reproduced in any material orm (including photocopying or storing in any medium byelectronic means) without the written permission o the copyright holders. Applications or the copyright holders written permission to reproduceany part o this publication should be addressed to the publishers. In accordance with the International Copyright Act 1956 and the UAE Federal
Law No. (7) o 2002, Concerning Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, any person acting in contravention o this will be liable to criminalprosecution and civil claims or damages.
ISBN: 978 1 86063 192 4
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record or this book is available rom the British Library.
Printed by Rashid Printers & Stationers LLC, Ajman, UAE
Photographic Credits
Abu Dhabi Airports Company: 49
Abu Dhabi Duty Free: 92/93
ADCO: 24T, 24B, 28
ADNOC: 52, 53
Ali, Mohammad Aran: 64
Arabian Eye: 8, 9
Codrai, Ronald: 50
Gallo Images/Getty Images: 20, 21,22, 23, 27, 39, 44/45
Hellyer, Peter: 54
Gulpics: 19
Newington, Greg: 4, 6/7, 11, 12,
14, 40, 83
Salik, Farooq: 42
Shankar, Adisehan: 66, 67, 78
Walsh, Callaghan: 1, 88
Rashid, Noor Ali: 29Steele, David: Front cover, back
cover, 10, 13, 17, 18, 30, 31, 35,
36, 47, 60, 61, 63, 65, 68, 69,
70/71, 72, 73, 77, 86, 87, 91
Sunshine Tours: 74, 75
TotalFinaEl: 51
Victory Team: 76
Willmore, Andrea: 32
Zandi, Dariush: 56, 84w
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His Highness, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United
Arab Emirates and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
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Foreword
By Sheikh Nahayan bin Mabarak Al Nahayan
It is my pleasure to introduce this new and updated edition oAbu Dhabi
Garden City of the Gulf.
Like its previous versions, this book presents an interesting portrait o the city
o Abu Dhabi. It is a story o the place and its people that captures the important
eatures o the citys development, history, character and achievements.
We are very proud o the advances that Abu Dhabi continues to make in all
spheres o lie. Our city is one o the worlds best places to live and work. It is
also an excellent place or business and commerce.
Our greatest ortune in Abu Dhabi has been that the leaders o our country
are people o wisdom and vision. We are extremely ortunate that Sheikh Zayedbin Sultan Al Nahyan was our ounding President. Sheikh Zayed was a man o
peace and progress. He was able to see beyond the horizon and chart a path or
our countrys uture. He led the building o our country as a place that welcomes
people rom round the world, a place o harmony and saety, and a land where
we see lush greenery where once there was only desert. Sheikh Zayed led the
creation o the physical inrastructure that ensures or our citizens modern
conveniences roads, schools, hospitals, airports and telecommunications.
Just as important, he led the creation o our social inrastructure that values
knowledge, peace and global understanding. The wise and strong leadership o
Sheikh Zayed made Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates places o progress,
prosperity and stability.
We are ortunate, as well, that ater Sheikh Zayeds passing, the leadership o
our country passed to His Highness Sheikh Khalia bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who
shares the values o his ather and continues his vision. And, especially pertinent
to this publication, we also have the able leadership o His Highness Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince o Abu Dhabi and Deputy
Supreme Commander o the Armed Forces. Under the enlightened leadership o
both Sheikh Khalia and Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Dhabi is moving orward with
deliberate strategies or the uture. Under their leadership, Abu Dhabi is
committed to creating a knowledge society, to boosting creativity and innovation,
and to learning rom successul experiences round the globe. As we watch Abu
Dhabi grow into one o the important global cultural and economic centres, we
all share in the keen awareness o what this wonderul city has come to representin its unique blend o modernity, history and heritage.
I take this opportunity to reiterate my strong belie that i our past, our
heritage and our present are any indication o our uture, Abu Dhabi will
continue to refect the unique spirit and character that has guided its
development over the years. All o us who live and work in Abu Dhabi are proud
to be part o that spirit and to embody that character.
Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan
Minister o Higher Education and Scientifc ResearchUnited Arab Emirates
Front cover: Abu Dhabi,
the Garden City o the
Gul, has some 20 well-
maintained parks.
Title page: Modern Abu
Dhabi is a cosmopolitan,
high-rise city, but its
oundations are frmly
rooted in the Islamic aith.
Opposite page: Traditional
fshing dhows moored in
the Dhow Harbour east o
Abu Dhabi Corniche.
Following spread: The Al
Maqtaa Bridge links the
island o Abu Dhabi with
its hinterland. The old
watchtower previously
guarded a causeway at
the same point.
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Contents
The United Arab Emirates 8
Ruler and President 20
The Land, its Heritage and People 30
A Thriving Economy 39
The Oil-and-Gas Sector 50
A Green and Pleasant Emirate 63
Abu Dhabis Leisure Industry 74
The World on Display 86
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Abu Dhabi Garden City of the Gulf
The United Arab Emirates
Chapter One
In March 1968, the rulers o seven sheikhdoms known as the Trucial States, on
the south-eastern ank o the Arabian Peninsula, came together to orm aederation. In the nature o such moves, it took a little while beore the structure
o the new state was fnally agreed, but on 2 December 1971 a new country, the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), took its place on the international stage.
Emerging ater a British presence in the region that had lasted a century and a
hal, the seven were disparate in size, population and resources, the smallest,
Ajman, being a mere 259 square kilometres and the largest, Abu Dhabi, about
80,000 square kilometres. The total population in 1968 was only around 180,000,
and much o the country had no roads, no schools, no hospitals, and little in the
way o a modern developed inrastructure, even though the discovery o oil a ew
years earlier held out the hope o better things to come.
The seven rulers, led by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Ruler o the largesto the sheikhdoms, Abu Dhabi, elt that they had little option but to agree to orm
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan
Al Nahyan signs the
Federation Agreement on
2 December 1971, giving
birth to the United Arab
Emirates. On his let is
Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed
Al Maktoum and behind
them are Mehdi Al Tajir,
Sheikh Maktoum bin
Rashid Al Maktoum and
Sheikh Hamdan bin
Rashid Al Maktoum.
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The United Arab Emirates
their ederation, or the British had made it clear that nothing would delay their
departure at the end o 1971. With varying degrees o enthusiasm and confdence,the new state and its leaders set out to ace the challenges o the uture.
Many outside observers, citing poverty, history and the oten tempestuous seas
o Middle East politics, gave the new state little chance o success. As is so oten
the case, however, the oretellers o doom were proven wrong. In the years that
have ollowed, the United Arab Emirates has undergone a rapid process o
economic development and social change that has occurred against a backdrop
o an enviable internal stability, despite the impact o two major wars and
revolution in the region. This transormation has been assisted by a mass
immigration o expatriate workers that has seen the total population climb to
nearly our and a hal million.
The citizens o the UAE, which comprises the Emirates o Abu Dhabi, Dubai,Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm al-Qaiwain and Ajman, have seen their
Under the new ag o
the United Arab Emirates
are, rom let: Sheikh
Khalid bin Mohammed Al
Qasimi, Sheikh Rashid
bin Saeed Al Maktoum,
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan,
Sheikh Rashid bin
Humaid Al Nuaimi,
Sheikh Mohammed bin
Hamad Al Sharqi and
Sheikh Rashid bin
Ahmed Al Mualla.
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Abu Dhabi Garden City of the Gulf
lives change completely within the space o a generation. Indeed, more than hal
o the countrys citizens have been born since 1971, and have known nothing
else but ederation.
The speed o the transormation, and the way in which it has been absorbed,
is particularly remarkable because the liestyle o the people, in what is now the
Emirates, had remained almost unchanged or hundreds, perhaps thousands o
years a lie o unrelenting struggle to live in one o the worlds most unyield-
ing environments.
The old ways involved survival in the heat o summer in one o the most
austere deserts on earth, on the edge o the Rub al-Khali (The Empty Quarter), or
in the Hajar Mountains, where a brie respite during winter rains was soon
orgotten amid the baked and barren rocks. Survival, on land at least, was a
matter o pastoral nomadism or scratching a living rom small agricultural plots;
the sea oered more in the way o resources, such as the world-amous pearls o
the Gul, but collecting them was a task to test even the most hardy.
Yet against this most uncompromising o backgrounds, the people o the
Emirates have managed to survive, winning or their country an important placeon the map o international maritime commerce, with Emirati sailors venturing to
East Arica and China as ar back as 2,000 years ago.
Today, the UAE is one o the worlds top oil producers and, thanks to the
wealth rom oil and gas production and, more importantly, to the way in which
the countrys leaders have utilized that wealth or the beneft o the people, the
hardships o the past are a ading memory. While the people o the UAE continue
to derive much o the strength o their society rom the heritage o a difcult
past, they are now able, with confdence, to look orward to a prosperous uture.
Abu Dhabi
The Emirate o Abu Dhabi, which has provided the overwhelming bulk o theunds that have paid or the ederations development, is by ar the largest o the
A dramatic view o the
rugged Hajar Mountains,
the main chain o
mountains o the United
Arab Emirates and thebackbone o Arabia.
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The United Arab Emirates
seven emirates, with an area o 80,000 square kilometres, 17 times larger than the
second Emirate o Dubai, and amounting to more than 86 per cent o the total
area o the ederation.
It has the largest population,1.7 million out o a total o 4.32 million,
according to the latest census, and also has the lions share o the UAEs oil and
gas resources. Though producing around 2.7-million barrels a day in early 2007,
it has plans to increase capacity to around 3.5-million barrels a day by 2010 and
eventually to around our million. It also has sufcient reserves or more than 100
years at present production rates, as well as the worlds ourth-largest reserves o
natural gas.
Once a major power in south-eastern Arabia (see The Land, its Heritage and
People), Abu Dhabi ell upon hard times in the 1930s and 1940s, partially as a
result o the international economic depression and the Second World War that
ollowed, and partially because o the introduction o the Japanese cultured
pearl, which destroyed the market or Abu Dhabis most prized export the pure,
natural Gul pearl.
Ironically, oil, the source o the economic miracle that has since changed theace o Abu Dhabi and the other emirates, was also frst produced rom beneath
the sea or rather the seabed.
Oil exploration in Abu Dhabi commenced in the late 1940s, although the frst
oil well, drilled at Ras Sadr, north-east o Abu Dhabi, in 1950, was a dry hole. It
was not until the late 1950s that commercially viable oil deposits were ound,
frst oshore, at Umm Shai, then onshore, at Bab. Exports commenced in 1962
and Abu Dhabi entered the oil era.
In 1966, a ew years later, Sheikh Zayed became the Ruler o the Emirate and
the process o development got ully under way. In the years that have passed
since then, the Emirate has been transormed, and, thanks to the generosity o
Sheikh Zayed, and, since his death in 2004, o his successor, His Highness SheikhKhalia bin Zayed Al Nahyan, now also the UAEs President, its oil and gas
Glass-clad skyscrapers
provide a unique backdrop
to the ubiquitous date
palms in one o the
many pleasant parks inthe city o Abu Dhabi.
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Abu Dhabi Garden City of the Gulf
revenues have also underpinned development elsewhere in the country.
The city o Abu Dhabi has, naturally, attracted a large proportion o the
development expenditure, some o the results o which can be seen in the pages
that ollow. At the time that the production o oil began, it was little more than a
coastal village and one which, moreover, appeared to have changed little in
centuries, thanks to the economic slump that ollowed the collapse o the
pearling industry.A comparison between pictures rom that time and those o the city today
show clearly the extent o the remarkable change that has taken place. Amid the
skyscrapers and broad thoroughares o the city today only three buildings rom
the past survive, one a simple watchtower that still stands like a sentinel at the
approaches to the island, and another Qasr al-Hosn, the old ort and ormer
ancestral home o the ruling Al Nahyan amily, beore becoming the governments
Centre or Documentation and Research and now destined to become a
showpiece museum o the recent past.
Abu Dhabi or many years appeared to lack some o the commercial verve o
its neighbour Dubai, although that has changed markedly in recent years, but it
has had the advantage not only o its oil and gas revenues but also o massivefnancial reserves.
In recent years, a move towards the privatization o key sectors o the state-
owned economy has been coupled with an innovative osets programme that
requires companies winning major military contracts to invest part o the
proceeds in productive industrial ventures; and, since 2005, the launching o a
massive investment programme, both rom the government and rom the private
sector, in residential property development, new industries and expansion o
acilities such as hotels and a new airport, as well as a major initiative to make
Qasr al-Hosn also
known as The White Fort
is destined to become
a showpiece museum
and the cultural heart
o the nation.
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The United Arab Emirates
the city an international cultural capital. Building on the basis established in the
frst our decades o oil production, a new phase o expansion is now getting
under way.
At the same time, its dozens o parks, gardens and well-planted roadsides have
given the city a green image that has, with justifcation, earned it the nickname
o Garden City o the Gul.
The Emirate o Abu Dhabi is, however, much more than just the city itsel.Roughly 160 kilometres east o the city lies its inland counterpart o Al Ain (itsel
the subject o another book in the Arabian Heritage Series:Al Ain Oasis City).
A conurbation o nearly 400,000 people, Al Ain is the heart o the Emirates
agricultural region, with arms and palm groves yielding tens o thousands o
tonnes o produce a year, continuing an agricultural tradition that stretches back
at least to the early Bronze Age, more than 5,000 years ago.
South-west o Abu Dhabi is the Liwa Oasis, an arc o oases more than 50
kilometres in length on the very edge o the Empty Quarter that is the traditional
home o the Bani Yas tribal conederation, today headed by President Sheikh
Khalia. To the north o Liwa is the burgeoning township o Medinat (Bida)
Zayed, capital o the Emirates Western Region, which provides a good centre ortouring the surrounding deserts, although the inexperienced should always take
care when driving o-road.
The Emirates coast begins at Ghantoot, in the north-east, running south-west
past the huge Taweela power and water-desalination plant, with the site or the
new Khalia Port and Industrial Zone nearby, and a sheltered system o lagoons
and inshore islands (some now the sites or new residential property
developments), that stretch to the capital, Abu Dhabi, itsel also on an island,
though with suburbs rapidly developing on the adjacent mainland.
Attab Fort, between the
village o Hmeem and
the town o Meziyrah, is
a fne example o the
recently renovated orts
in the Liwa Crescent.