Introduction

Abu Dhabi, the largest of the Federation’s emirates, is the petroleum industry hub with bordering Saudi-Arabia on its southern and eastern limits and containing more than three-fourths of the total federal lands. The port city of Dubai is the capital of the Dubayy emire and one of the most important commercial and financial hubs of the region, home to hundreds of multinationals in the skyscraper forest, at the base of the mountainous Musandam Peninsula. The smaller emirates of Sharjah (Al-Shāriqah), — the Ajmān, Umm al-Qaywayn, Raphail al-Khaymah, and the Hormuz Strait that connects the Gulf of Oman northwards towards Iran. Seventh member Al-Fujayrah of the federation faces the Oman Gulf and is the only union member to the Persian Gulf without any frontage.
The area now composed of Emirates has traditionally been dominated by Persian culture as it is closely linked to Iran and its open sea boundaries have invited emigrants and merchants from elsewhere for centuries. The territory is now a realm of the Arab clans and families. Portuguese and Dutch stockpiles in the 18th century grew, then withdrew with the rise of British naval power; the Emirates joined hands in the Trucial States in a series of truces with Britain in the 19th century (also called Trucial Oman or the Trucial Sheikhdoms). After World War II (1939–45) the states gained sovereignty by proclaiming sovereign statehood the Trucial States of Bahrain and Qatar. The remainder were united officially in 1971 and the capital was the city of Abu Dhabi. Fed unity has since been proved by rivalries between the families of major states of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, while the internal cohesion of the emirates has been enhanced by external events such as the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) and a continuing territorial struggle with Iran.
They have a combination of rocky plateau, coastal plains and waterless ranges, with wetlands and wild landscapes. The seaside is a sanctuary for migrant fowl and attracts bird-watchers from all over the world, and foreign tourists have been attracted to the unspoiled beaches and opulent resorts of the region. The United Arab Emirates, situated at the historical and geographic crossroads of numerous nationalities and ethnic groups, are a striking combination of ancient traditions and new technologies, cosmopolitanity and insularity and abundance and desire. Jonathan Raban, the author of the Vacancy Tour, pointed to the capital as follows: “Abou Dhabi’s condition was so obvious that it hadn’t been surprising that bits of stroke and polystyrene from the crates they were packed were attached to buildings.”
There are far fewer regions in the United Arab Emirates than Portugal. It borders west and south with Saudi Arabia, and east and north east with Oman. The country’s exact frontiers remain a topic of contention. Despite a 1974 secret deal, which had settled three boundary disputes between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the legal status of the agreement remains uncertain. The United Arab Emirates says that a stretch of coastline surrounding Katar to the northwest has been ceded by Saudi Arabia in the 1974 deal. Saudi claims on Shaybah oilfield in the south are likewise contested while Saudi Arabia (and Oman) has at times contested the demand of the Emirates for oasis around the city of Al-Do Ayn. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Emirate people are still in conflict with Iran over possession of three islands, Abū Mūsā and Lesser Tunb.
Almost the whole field is desert, with vast fields of sand. In the oases of Al-Liwā A tim is situated some of the world’s biggest sand dunes to the east of the region. Major oasis are about 100 milles east of Abu Dhabi, at Al-Net Ayn (160 kilometres). The northern expansion of the mountains Šijaar, also shared by Oman, provides the only more key characteristic of relief in the eastern part of the Musandam Peninsula; at their highest point elevations are up to approximately 6500 feet (2000 metres). The coast of the Persian Gulf is shattered by beaches and isolated by small ships. However, there are no natural deepwater ports; both Port Râshid and Port Jebel Ali are man-made, 20 miles southwest of Dubai, and the main ports are Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ra Ali are al- Khaymah’s. There are also no natural depwater harbor ports. There are three natural harbours, Divā, Khawr Fakkān and Kalbā, on the shore of the Gulf of Oman more frequently.
There are no ongoing streams and bodies of surface water that exist periodically in the United Arab Emirates. Precipitation, how little, drains from the mountains in the shape of seasonal wadis which end up in inland salt flats, or sabkhahs, whose drainage is often restricted by the ever changing dunes in the region. The Ma Tanisal Flat in the far west runs to Saudi Arabia in the south, with coastal sabkhahs in the areas surrounding Abu Dhabi regularly overflowing with water in the Persian Gulf.