Travel guide United Arab Emirates

These clothes are the visible signs of the Emirati identity. The abaya is a long black coat for women, sometimes discreetly decorated with gold threads and embroidery. For men, the dishdash or kandura is a long, immaculate white cotton dress that is sometimes coloured in winter. The gentleman changes almost 4 times a day.

Name given to the wind tower, ancestor of air conditioning, imported from Iran at the end of the 19th century. It rises 5 or 6 m above the house. Its ingenious system of openings and vertical ducts allows the breeze to ventilate the interior. Above these towers, the women dry the laundry, adding humidity to the ventilation.

Settled by modernity, they now live in villas, abandoning their precarious huts! Semi-nomadic, living yesterday on dates and pearls, the Bedouin are a distant memory whose ghost we encounter in the Al Gharbia region. Every year, festivals organized in several emirates bring the past of this culture back to life.

It covers 70% of the emirates' territory. It's impossible to forget: sand can be seen in the cities, on the sides of the roads or on the rare plots of land that are still unoccupied. On windy days, it shrouds the cities in a yellowish haze. It's a great place to recharge one's batteries by spending an evening in one of the campsites.

Traditional wooden boats, they are still built using ancestral methods. Nowadays, dhows are used both commercially and for tourism, adding to the charm of the Emirates. As part of our heritage, they are a source of pride for Emiratis, who flock to the dhow regattas held in winter.

Like the dromedary, the image of the falcon perpetuates the Emirati people's attachment to their Bedouin traditions. Falconry, the country's totem animal, has become a traditional sporting activity and has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010. There is even a hospital for falcons in the vicinity of Abu Dhabi City.

Present throughout the country, the builders used coral stone, sand, gypsum, branches, palm tree fibres and shells, and beams from mangrove wood. At the time of the tribal wars, they were used as defensive zones for the clans, but above all to protect the fresh water wells located within the fort.

Arabian coffee is served in hotels, at your hosts' homes, at any time of day and accompanied by dates. Served in the dallah, a long-spouted coffee pot, it is made with very little coffee, to which cardamom and sometimes rosewater are added. Its color is that of a light tea. To soften its bitterness, it is drunk with a date in the mouth.

Inherited from the Bedouin culture, hospitality is truly the dominant trait of the country's inhabitants. Symbolized by the Arabian coffee pot (newcomers are always offered coffee and dates), this quality is widespread in each of the seven emirates, where locals and expatriates are always ready to inform or help foreigners.

"God willing! This is the kind response to any request, whatever it may be, to justify oneself in case a request cannot be honored in time. This everyday word is adopted as quickly as it is feared. We need to understand it, accept it and respect it without ever getting angry: "Everything is in God's hands".

In this country where more than 200 nationalities cohabit, and freedom of worship, it is a master word and a ministry is dedicated to it. In 2019, the Year of Tolerance is inaugurated by Pope Francis who came to sign the document on human brotherhood with the Iman of Al-Azhar. The Abraham Accords in 2020 establish peace between the country and Israel.

Innumerable, unavoidable, almost perpetual, they punctuate the urban landscape and strike the visitor. Along the roadsides and in every neighbourhood, they erect their mountains of cranes and columns of scaffolding. They offer tourists a very curious panorama: that of a country in gestation, at work, ready to emerge from the sands!