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Since when as a child I came to know about the existence of oases in the deserts I had always wanted to visit one. A visit to Dubai gave me a chance to visit Al Ain oasis, the most famous of all the oases. It is merely 135 km from Dubai. So, one day my friend drove my wife and me to Al Ain. It was only 90 minutes drive on a first class road in a powerful car, often cruising at 160 km per hour.
For the first hundred
kilometres it was all a desert country with occasional patches of
trees. Once we neared Al Ain, the topography changed and more green
patches started appearing on both sides of the road. Finally we
reached the destination. Even in the desert there are occasional
rains. The desert sand does not hold up any water. As a result all the
water seeps underground and none of it evaporates. The underground
water travels and collects at some deeper recesses of earth and
eventually finds its way up to the ground level through some aquifer
or springs. Al Ain is a lucky place that here the underground water
comes up through aquifers and wadis. And water is the elixir of life.
Since time immemorial those underground sources have nourished this
oasis. They provide water for the crops, animals and the people. Al
Ain is a fertile oasis. Its name ("the spring" in Arabic)
derives from its originally plentiful supply of fresh water from
underground sources. Historically, caravans have been coming here in
course of their journeys for water, rest and recuperation. Evidence of
burials of the oldest farming communities in the region has been
discovered dating from the late fourth and third early millennia BC.
The area is still famous for its traditional irrigation system, the
Falaj, some parts of which date back as far as 1, 000 BC. The water
was directed through a network of skilfully designed, man-made tunnels
and channels to provide ‘trickle irrigation’ to the farms and date
groves in the surrounding area. The use of modern water supply
technology in Al Ain can most clearly be seen in the greenery covering
more than 100 sq km of the area. Even the six-lane roads in the city
are lined with a wide variety of trees and shrubs, both indigenous and
foreign. The government is interested in the process of reclaiming
desert land and transforming it into something both beautiful and
useable. The 100 million assorted trees and 18 million date palms are
watered by a combination of reprocessed waste water and desalinated
water, leaving the groundwater as the main supply for human
consumption. There are numerous farms of all sizes around the city
which produce an astonishing amount of salad crops, tomatoes,
cucumbers, lettuces, and even strawberries and most of the dates.
Experiments are continually in progress to produce desert-hardy plants
to increase the self-sufficiency requirements of the country. After
travelling to a desert country to find oneself in a country covered by
trees is a fascinating change. The merciless afternoon sun does not
hold any terror once you are in the oasis. The massive modern
development in Al Ain can be traced directly to the influence of the Al Ain fully deserves its title of
garden city in the desert. Its natural geographical features, enhanced
by the "beautification scheme" launched on the President’s
initiative, make it a pleasant and refreshing place in which to spend
time, whether as a resident or as a tourist. It boasts some very good
five star hotels. Al Ain is the fourth largest city in the Al Ain is
developing as a tourist destination. It regularly records the highest
summer temperatures in the country, but the dry desert air makes it a
welcome retreat from the coastal humidity of the larger cities. Many
Arab nationals in
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