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29 BEYOND ThE ZONE hAPPENINGS The New Ice Age After months of waiting, the new Ice Age is finally here. Ras Al Khaimah’s new Ice Land Water Park is now open. Drive out of Ras Al Khaimah, past Al Hamra into the Khor Qurm region, and you could be forgiven for thinking you have driven into another world. Giant sea monsters and ice-capped mountain rise up out of the desert. You aren’t dreaming – it’s the new Ice Land Water Park, part of an ambitious development that will further cement Ras Al Khaimah’s reputation as a world-class tourism and leisure destination. Costing more than AED 140 million to build, the park will be home to 27 different types of water slides; a wave pool; an artificial coral reef, with fish for snorkelling; tundra bath jacuzzis; an action river; and an aqua football pool. It also features the world’s largest man-made waterfall – at 160m wide and 14m high – from which visitors can dive into a pool below. It will even have an Iberian rain-dance pool – where people can dance, while being showered with artificial rain and music played by local DJs. “The water slides emerge from 5 towers situated on top of the Polar Mountains, staged as an extension of the Hajar Mountains,” says Santokh Chawla, Joint Managing Director of Polo RAK Amusements. “Ice Land’s theme comes from the concept of global warming, which has led to a transpolar arctic drift. A group of penguins, who survived the journey from the Arctic to the Arabian Desert, set up their new home along the coast of Jazeera Al Hamra.” The snow-themed water park is the first phase of an AED 850 million development called WoW RAK. When finished, WoW RAK will have two amusement parks – Ice Land Water Park and Planet Earth Theme Park – as well as a shopping mall, entertainment plaza and budget resort. The entire development will cover around 120 acres, making it one of the largest in the UAE. When everything is up and running, WoW RAK will be able to host more than 15,000 people a day. The next phases of the development are planned to open over the coming two years. The theme park is being developed by Polo RAK Amusements – a joint venture between Polo Amusement Park from India, the RAK Investment Authority and RAK Properties. His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qassimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, laid the foundation stone for WoW RAK back in August 2006; three years later, the first stage of WoW RAK is now open. It has been worth the wait – the Ice Age is finally here! For more, check out their website www.icelandwaterpark.com. An artist’s impression of the Polar Mountains. What’s happening in RAK March / April 2010 happenings at the hilton RAK Resort and Spa For a South American experience, visit Pura Vida Restaurant at the Hilton Beach Resort every Thursday from 6.30-11:00 pm. Enjoy live samba music with the Leo band, beverages, and all the meat you can eat from the Churrasco BBQ. Celebrate St Patrick’s Day on 18 March, with a green-themed beach party at the Waterbreaker terrace. For Easter, the Hilton Resort will be putting on a Seafood Night at Al Bahar Restaurant, as well as an Easter Brunch at Maarid Restaurant. For details and booking, please call: +971 7 2065502. Festive activities at Cove Rotana Resort Come and gather around with friends and family for a BBQ on the beach, every Friday in March from 7:00-11:00 pm. If you want to finish the night with an Arabic touch, try the shisha while relaxing on the majlis facing the sea. Celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, 21 March, at the Cinnamon restaurant, where they will put on a lavish buffet especially created to please the entire family, including a kids’ food station and entertainment. Cake and flowers for mommy are available on request. Enjoy Easter with a special brunch from Friday, 2 April, until Sunday, 4 April at Cinnamon Restaurant. For details and booking, please call: +971 7 2066000. Tower Links Golf Competitions Saturday, 13 March, Tower Links will host a ‘Ball and Chain’ Challenge, which is a Greensome format with tee times from 12:00 pm. This event will have two categories: the main one for pairs (of either gender or mixed) and another event for all male pairs. On 27 March and 24 April, the club will hold their Monthly Medal competitions, which guests are welcome to join. Tower Links Golf Club also holds a nine hole, floodlit, social competition every Wednesday night, with a different format each week. For more information, please email golf@towerlinks.com or call +971 7 2279939. 30
EXPLORING RAK EXPLORING RAK Sheba’s Palace Ancient ruins are both haunting and comforting. This is their unique allure, which enables them to draw generation after generation of tourists, explorers and romantics. Standing amongst their decay and rubble you cannot help but think of death, but at the same time, the fact that some part of something built by man still remains hundreds or thousands of years after he has passed on is heartening. These remnants of antiquity pique our curiosity and appeal to our desire to connect with the past. In this regard, the Shimal district (Shamal) is perhaps the most interesting place to visit in Ras Al Khaimah. Hidden in plain sight just off the highway to Oman, it has been the site of human habitation for several millennia, with the earliest archaeological finds dating back as far as the 3rd Millennium BC. As such, the area holds great significance in the history of the United Arab Emirates, yet little is known about these sites, and relatively few residents of the UAE have visited them. Even many of the inhabitants of Shamal and neighbouring villages don’t really know the stories behind them or appreciate their significance. For them, they are simply another part of the landscape, like the dry desert brush and the mountains. The view over Shimal from Sheba’s Palace 31 At a quick glance, Shamal appears no different than any of the other little settlements nestled at the foot of the Hajar mountains – scattered clusters of houses and small shops, goats idly grazing along narrow roads, and residents who stare curiously at the occasional visitor – but a closer look reveals much more. Heading off the highway, you quickly find yourself on a journey through time, as every few hundred metres yields desolate remnants of one different era after another. A tiny winding road carries you towards the mountains, past a 19th Century watch tower on the outskirts of the village and between rocky fields, where gnarled desert trees cast their shade over ancient burial sites, until suddenly, you find yourself directly below the crumbling ruins of a medieval mountain fortress, Sheba’s palace, in English, or Qasr Al Zabba (Palace of Zenobia), in Arabic. The Queen of Sheba is mentioned in both the Bible and Quran as a powerful ruler who paid a visit to the court of King Solomon in the 10th Century BC, while Zenobia was a 3rd Century (AD) Syrian Queen, who led a revolt against the Roman Empire. Despite the names, there is no evidence to suggest a link between the fortress and either of the legendary monarchs, who lived long before it was ever built. It’s not clear why the structure is attributed to these women, but local historians believe that there may have been some powerful female ruler associated with it. The general consensus is that it dates to the end of the Julfar Period about 400 to 500 years ago, though some pre-Islamic pottery was found nearby, indicating that there might have been an earlier stronghold on the same spot. According to ancient accounts, Julfar, the historical name for Ras Al Khaimah, was an important centre of trade, in existence from at least the 9th-10th Century AD, until it fell into decline during the time of the Portuguese occupation in the 17th Century. The palace is believed to have been the summer retreat of Julfar’s ruler. The rocky ridge on which the ‘palace’ is situated is about 200 metres up. Stairs have been built recently, so it is much more accessible than it would have been before. Even so, they only cover about three quarters of the approach, and the final portion of the ascent entails scrambling up the sloping rocky surface to the top. The effort spent is well worth it, if only for the view. Standing up there, in the swirling gusts of cool, fresh air, it isn’t hard to understand why the fortress was built on that spot. On a clear and sunny day – as most days are here – you can see for miles – across Shamal, over the city of Ras Al Khaimah, and all the way to the shimmering sea. Not easily accessed, it would have been the perfect vantage point from which to safely keep watch over the settlements below and spot any approaching trouble from afar off. It’s also noticeably cooler and breezier there than on the ground below, making it a far more pleasant, during the harsh summer months. Sadly – abandoned and unprotected for years – the palace is in an advanced state of decline, the result of repeated vandalism. For the untrained eye, it is hard to picture what it must have looked like in its heyday, but from the remaining bits of wall and foundation, it is possible to roughly make out the location of different rooms and chambers. According to the experts who have studied the site, the palace was a rectangular structure with rooms on two levels and round towers in the corners. The best preserved portion is a sunken room, with a high up opening looking out over the town below. It is not clear for what it was used, but speculation ranges from a cistern for water storage (most likely) to a dungeon for prisoners. Though it was abandoned in the 16th Century, it continued to serve as a retreat in times of danger for the residents of Shamal for some time after that. The remnants of a long double wall extending all along the edges of the site, certainly seem to indicate some sort of protective purpose. Because there is no mention of the palace in any old texts, most of what is ‘known’ about it is purely guesswork, based on the general history of the area, and the little fragments of evidence scattered around. Unfortunately, attempts to protect the palace and other ancient sites with barbed wire fences have not been very successful, and the only purpose they seem to serve is to obscure the view and ruin attempts to get a good photograph. Given the amount of damage it has incurred (broken down to its foundations in most parts), a reconstruction of Sheba’s Palace would be quite expensive and not really feasible, but there is some talk of eventually doing something to stop it from disappearing completely and turn it into a proper tourist destination. At the moment however, it remains as it has for generations – quietly crumbling into the ground – and accessible to anyone willing to make the climb. hOW TO GET ThERE Drive north along Oman Road (highway leading to RAK FTZ Industrial Park) towards Rams. Cross the junction with Al Mamourah Street, and after the last traffic signal on that road, drive straight until you reach the fourth road on the right, marked by a brown sign reading ‘Shamal’. (There is a big pink hall on the opposite side of the highway.) This road is known as Archaeology Road, and if you continue on it for approximately 1km, you will see a 19th Century watch tower on your left. Nearby, along the side of the road, to the right and then a little further down to the left are some of the biggest of the Bronze Age tombs discovered in the area. These are partially fenced in with barbed wire. Continue past the tombs, and the road will take you through Shamal. Follow the road until you find the mountain and a gravel parking lot (the road will curve sharply to the right at this point). Sheba’s Palace is on the ridge directly above. Climb the steps winding up the side of the mountain. These end about 3/4 of the way up; from there, the two easiest ways to reach the top are to either climb the rock face to the front or walk around to the side until you see a more gradual incline (with a loose rocky surface) leading up to the ruins. The sunken room is one of the only remaining structures 32
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