OASIS D'AL AÏN

Here is the biggest oasis of Al Aïn. At the reception, a large paper map is distributed and very useful to find your way in this green labyrinth. If you want to discover the oasis by bike, bring some change because credit cards are not accepted. If it is not too hot yet, it is a pleasure to wander in this lung of 147 000 date palms. The 1,200 hectares of this oasis, which like the 5 others in the city, is a World Heritage Site, includes 550 orchards that belong to as many owners, including the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed. The oases are not like those in Tintin in the land of black gold. Here, there is no stretch of water surrounded by palm trees and Bedouin tents around. The oases of Al Aïn, several hundred years old, are perfectly maintained plots. To the right of the entrance, go to the eco-center before entering the oasis. The films and didactic animations are useful to understand where you are.

A little history. At the time, each oasis was a village. Each one had a mosque, often a fort and fortified buildings with a sheikh at its head. This defensive ensemble protected not only the inhabitants, but also the crops and especially the water... In summer, the Bedouins of the desert settled there, being able to find water and a little shade in exchange for a rent. Workers who were not part of the tribes called bidar took care of their maintenance. Of the nine oases, seven remain: Al Jahili, the smallest, Al Muatared, Al Jimi, Al Muaiji, Al Qattara, Al Hili and Al Aïn Oasis, the largest of them. The latter has been named a "traditional agricultural system of global importance" by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

And the real kings of these oases are the palm trees: everything is valued in the palm tree, because the branches are used in basketry, the trunks of the oldest end up as beams, gutters or pillars. Of course, the priority of phoeniculture is the fruit. In the palm grove, males are in the minority: one for every fifty to one hundred females, so there is no question of leaving it to nature alone to decide on the fruit of the harvest. Every spring, the man, with great agility, climbs the trees and helps with the pollination. He carefully detaches the male spikelets to bind them in the female inflorescence after the spathes have burst. It is king, but not alone, as fruit trees (mangoes, lemons, oranges, bananas), vegetables, wheat and medicinal trees such as ghaf(Prosopis cineraria) are also grown. And none of this would have been possible without the unique development of the aflaj which has allowed the development of the oases for over three thousand years.

Date production: Al Ain dates come in different varieties of red and yellow colors. Their qualities depend on the harvest season. There are fresh dates while others are drier and almost dehydrated. As a basic staple food in nomadic caravans, dates have extraordinary qualities, as palms concentrate minerals such as potassium, sulfur, phosphorus, iron, sodium, magnesium and zinc in the fruit. It is very nutritious because it contains vitamins A, B, C, E, fatty acids, sugars and proteins. Some species are almost completely sugar-free and are therefore useful in diabetic diets.

The falaj (plural aflaj), which in Arabic means "division" or "canals", is an ancient and ingenious irrigation system that allowed for the settlement and development of the population in a region without rivers.

The falaj systems in Al Ain were of two types: one drew water from sunken mother wells and the other known as "ghait" flowed from the surface water of seasonal streams. Once the water reached the oasis, it was then distributed to the owners of arable land through the sharia, a system of division according to a complex water allocation plan. The falaj has over time become a cultural element. This heritage gives rise to a walk with an incomparable charm in the palm grove. Capturing the reflections of the light, the falaj enchants the place with the sound of running water... and refreshing your hands or feet when it is very hot is a real delight! But where does this water come from? The Al Hajar mountain range which dominates the city of Al Aïn appears at first glance so arid that it is impossible to guess that it shelters several natural underground reservoirs of rainwater (aquifer) which have been storing it for millions of years. It is from this source that the falaj, an underground tunnel that can be several kilometers long, carries the water by simple gravity. It reaches the surface near the plantations where it divides into several canals that run through the crops or palm groves. Depending on the needs, the canals are open or closed, so you can see some branches where water is flowing, while other canals in the neighboring plots will be dry. However, the water is first used for human and animal consumption, then for ablutions, finally for washing and household chores and lastly only for watering the plantations. This know-how is several thousand years old! The men who dug these galleries have known since time immemorial how to implement a certain number of technical skills to ensure the proper functioning of the system. In particular, they had to calculate the degree of the slope in order to favor the optimal flow: if the water flows too slowly, it stagnates and deposits sediments, if it arrives too quickly, the pressure risks causing the walls to collapse. In addition to the dozens of years of work required to dig the galleries, it was also necessary to dig vertical shafts from the surface at regular intervals to ventilate and clean the gallery, but also to access it for possible repairs. In the city of Al Aïn, dozens ofaflaj have been dug. The aquifers are almost all dry and today if most of the twenty-one aflaj still have a known name, they are unfortunately dried up. Five of them are still functioning and three have been discovered following archaeological excavations in particular. Dating from the Bronze Age and 3,000 years old, they were classified in 2001 as a World Heritage Site and are recognized as the oldest examples of falaj discovered so far.

Water has always been a major issue! In 1946, when Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nayhan became governor of Al Ain at the age of 28, he immediately started a water reform, making it free for all inhabitants and abolishing all trade around it. Water is the most important part of a garden. Therefore, irrigation is the most important feature in an oasis. Gardens are at a lower level than the surrounding landscape. With gravity, water flows to the surface through underground channels from higher ground and reaches each palm grove, where it is diverted by barriers that make it flow to each corner of the land. The fields have a precise geometry, defined by the flow of water that descends and irrigates the crops. It is distributed along the channels through large and important valves. For the people who work in the oasis, irrigation is a daily ritual. The gardens of Al Ain oasis are in small depressions, each with a raised path on the surrounding raised bank, which protects each garden and its crops. This protection is then reinforced by walls. The garden is always protected, built, walled, and the final level of protection is provided by the palm leaf canopy. The garden is constructed as a capsule, an enclosed ecosystem.