More views from our hotel. Lov'n it.
Today we are visiting one of the other Emirates, Sharjah and the town of Sharjah (3rd largest city in the Emirates). It was about an hour or so away from Dubai.
Sharjah is a port city and also has some interesting architecture. Just not a dramatic as we have seen in Dubai.
Our first stop was the Sharjah King Faisal Mosque…exterior views only.
Then it was to the Souk Al-Jubail…
to visit the fish market (clean and sterile…very different than the ones we’ve seen in India and Morocco and other countries). We have seen many fish markets around the world and it is always interesting to see the differences.
In India the fish market we visited was right at the dock and fish were displayed in barrels or on large tarps on the ground. This market in Sharjah was unlike any others we've seen...very clean, sanitary and modern. Lots of stainless steel and ice.
And, once you made your purchases you could have them clean it right there in a separate cleaning room.
And the staff at the stalls and the cleaning rooms were so friendly. Lots of smiles and thumbs up and displaying their product for us to photograph. A fun, fascinating visit.
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More Sharjah Fish Market
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the meat market,
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More Sharjah Al Jubail Meat Market
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and the produce market (lots of dates).
We then stopped at the Central Market, which is a beautiful building in two wings.
One wing was primarily gold shops…and what a lot of gold. Some of these pieces looks beyond amazing (and heavy). No idea where one would wear some of the big "bibs" of gold. Wow.
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More Sharjah Gold Market
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The second wing had clothing and rugs and such…not nearly as jaw dropping.
Sharjah was a major airport hub in the early 20th century, used by the British as a stopping off point for flights to India. The old airport buildings have been turned into a museum, the Al Mahatta Museum. Rather interesting.
They had a map of the Empire Mail Route that ran from Australia to India to the UK plus routes all over Africa (1936 - existing and projected routes). An amazing history lesson that encapsulates, in one photo, the scope and magnitude of the British Empire.
And a number of airplanes on display.
We also drove by the Sharjah Court House (very pretty),
the waterfront,
and toured the
Bait Al Nabooah Museum. This was the home of a wealthy pearl merchant.
We also stopped at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization. This was very interesting.
Most people know that the numbers we use today (0, 1, 2, 3, etc.) were developed by the Arabs (or maybe most people don't🤔). And I always knew that the Arab cultures developed early irrigation systems and other things in use today. But I never realized how much.
While much of the museum focused on Mohammed and Islam, there were a lot of exhibitions about Arab inventions and innovation, particularly the displays regarding all the scientific, medical and engineering work done by the early Arabs. (many predating Mohammed).
These photos are of a few of the things that caught my eye in the museum. I have used a pan balance in chemistry labs (years ago) and have used distillation apparatus in work in chemistry labs. Both come from the early Arabs. There are also photos here of navigation tools and dental tools that look just like the torture implements used by dentists to this day. And hand grenades. Who knew.
This was an extremely interesting and educational museum. Learned so much.
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| Hand Grenades |
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| Rosewater Still |
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| Traction device for bad backs (not an intentional torture device) |
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| Dental Tools |
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| Navigation instruments |
We saw a bit of the Sharjah Heritage Area
and drove by the Sharjah fort.
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More Sharjah
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We were back in
Dubai by late afternoon. In the evening
we decided to take a walk along the beach across from our hotel. Nice evening for a walk but it was still
rather hot and humid. We had dinner at a
Texas BBQ place.
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