Al-Ain

Garden city of the Gulf.

- Pushpa Bhatia

Birth place of Sheikh Jayad bin Sultan Al Nahyan – first president of the UAE – Al-Ain is one of the oldest permanently inhabited settlements in the Middle East. It is also known as the garden city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, given the many oases, parks, tree-lined avenues and decorative roundabouts within the city. Strict height controls on new buildings to no more than four floors, emphasise the greenery of the city.

Al-Ain is the second largest city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the fourth largest city in the United Arab Emirates. It has a higher proportion of Emiriti nationals than elsewhere in the country, but the majority of its residents are expatriates, particularly from the Indian subcontinent. Many people are from Bangladesh, Pakistan and some from Afghanistan.

Al-Ain is 120 km south of Dubai and approximately 160 km east of the capital, inland on the border with Oman. The freeways connecting AlAin, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, form a geographic triangle in the country, each city being roughly 130 kilometres from the other two.