United Arab Emirates

The Rock Art of the Emirate of Sharjah

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  • Philipp Peterer
  • Szucs Tamas

The Rock Art of the Emirate of Sharjah covers both abstract and naturalistic motifs.

The oldest date to the 5th millennium BCE. The 4 groups of sites are found in the Al-Hajar Mountains.

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
The Rock Art of the Emirate of Sharjah (ID: 6642)
Country
United Arab Emirates
Status
On tentative list 2023 Site history
History of The Rock Art of the Emirate of Sharjah
2023: Added to Tentative List
Added to tentative list
Type
Cultural
Criteria
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org

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  • Community Category
  • Archaeological site: Rock Art
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First published: 05/11/25.

Philipp Peterer

Rock Art light

The Rock Art of the Emirate of Sharjah (On tentative list)

Rock Art of Sharjah: Al Modaify

I somehow like rock art sites. Mostly it’s not about the art itself (they look like drawings of a five year old kid), but about the achievement, if you actually found them. The Sharjah rock art sites certainly trigger my inner Indiana Jones, as they are not marked on google maps or open street map and you need to rely on the location markers within the dossier.

The only place with a marker on open street map is Wadi Shie. But that one was a bit too far out of our itinerary. On the map, Kalba looked like the easy to find it’s a conical hill surrounded by desert. Unfortunately there is a huge construction site around the hill and there is currently no way to get close to it. But I didn’t want to give up yet and so we drove to next location with the least deviation on the way to the Al Bidyah mosque: Al Modaify.

Al Modaify is set at the beginning of a mountain chain, still within Khorfakkan. We crossed a dry canal to access the area and hat to climb up the hill. There are signs, marking the area as an archaeological zone, but no fences. While I groomed the area together with JayT, it was actually Els who spotted the rock art with her camera focus.

The disadvantage both sites (Kalba and Al Modaify) had, was the lack of big flat rocks to draw on. Other rock art sites I visited provided lots …

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