JEBEL HAFIT EXCURSION

The second highest peak in the Emirates, but the first in Abu Dhabi at 1,240m, Jebel Hafit, also known as Hafeet, is an outstanding heritage sanctuary. It stretches from north to south for a dozen kilometers, four kilometers wide, and is cut in two by the Omani border. A road traced in 1986 winds up to the summit at the threshold of the sultanate. Halfway up, there is a café and two ugly snack bars on a giant parking lot. The ascent, which allows you to stop on panoramic areas, is fortunately more successful than the arrival. On the way, you will notice a presidential palace, just after the Mercury. The Hafit conceals beautiful richness of flora (157 varieties listed) and fauna (sand fox, bats, vultures, damans), which unfortunately do not jump to the eyes.

Here, there is still a necropolis of the fourth and third millennia (3200-2700 BC). On the eastern slope, in the sector of Mezyad (inaccessible without authorization), Danish and French archaeologists have unearthed several circular tombs, each of which should contain about ten bodies. Some of these vaults hid metal objects and beads, evidence of a later reuse in the Iron Age. On the western slope, visible from the beginning of the ascent, the green spot of Mubazzarah, a public park with a vacation village where sulphurous waters at 42 degrees emerge. If the ascent on foot can be difficult, we recommend you to reach the hotel by car, if only for a tea, at the time of the sunset.