TCA archaeologist Abdulla Al Kaabi and NYUAD student Fadhl Al Eryani comb the sands at archaeological site b on Saadiyat Island. Courtesy Dr Robert Parthesius
TCA archaeologist Abdulla Al Kaabi and NYUAD student Fadhl Al Eryani comb the sands at archaeological site b on Saadiyat Island. Courtesy Dr Robert Parthesius

Saadiyat Island: the secret history



As he sits in the majlis of his modern suburban villa, Thani Al Remaithi tells stories that transport his daughter, Fatima, and her professor, the Zayed University archaeologist Dr Tim Power, to the years when he lived a very different life on the “island of happiness” the world now knows as Saadiyat.

The most striking thing about Al Remaithi’s recollections are not his powers of recall, which are considerable, but the light they shine on the very different and half-forgotten world of the not-so-distant past.

Al Remaithi spent the first 22 years of his life living with his mother, grandparents and seven siblings in one of 20 houses that then formed the island’s only community, the now-disappeared Sha’biyat Al Saadiyat.

Established in the 1960s as little more than a cluster of fishermen’s huts, the Sha’biyat was established soon after Al Remaithi’s birth, when the original hamlet was replaced by a series of single-storey concrete houses as part of a campaign to provide the first generation of UAE citizens with modern, low-cost ‘Sha’abi’ – or national – housing.

______

Saadiyat’s secrets uncovered

Podcast — John Dennehy talks to Nick Leech about its hidden history

In pictures — Meet the archaeologists behind uncovering Saadiyat

______

Despite the immediate architectural improvement, life on Saadiyat in the 1970s continued to be defined by the absence of essential amenities. Food, for example, still came directly from the sea or had to be imported from Abu Dhabi, a short boat ride away across the turquoise waters that form the creek known as the Khor Laffan.

“There was no petrol, no electricity and no water,” says the 44-year-old, remembering an island whose solitary well contained brackish water fit only for camels, 500 of which were kept on a small farm, or ezba, in the heart of the island.

“My mother and grandmother would go to Abu Dhabi to get food and [drinking] water and I would go with them, but nobody used too much [water] because we would clean our clothes and wash in the sea,” says Al Remaithi, remembering a life that, despite its hardships, he still cherishes.

Each summer, as temperatures rose and the fishing season ended, the Al Remaithat would leave Saadiyat for the cooler temperatures of the desert’s interior and it was during one of those annual sojourn’s that Al Remaithi was born in Al Ain.

In the cooler autumn and winter months, daily life on Saadiyat was made possible by the presence of certain basic facilities.

“As well as the Sha’biyat, there was a school house, a small police station and a hospital,” Al Remaithi remembers. “But this was only open for two hours at a time and was only for first aid.”

Until his daughter Fatima embarked on Zayed University’s Emirati Studies programme, the undergraduate regarded her father’s memories as little more than the baggage that accompanies any family history, but as the senior student explains, her opinions have changed.

“[The course] made me appreciate the stories more and allowed me to see them from a different point of view,” says the 22-year-old. “[I now see that they contain] information that is part of the oral history and archaeology of Saadiyat.”

Fatima’s tutor agrees with her assessment. Working with Abu Dhabi’s National Archives, Power recently worked on an oral history of Jazirat Al Hamra, an historic but abandoned pearling village in Ras Al Khaimah, and he hopes to achieve something similar for Saadiyat by conducting interviews with members of each of the original households.

The result, he says, would be an important “micro-history that investigates Emirati society at a key moment in its transition”.

For the past 18 months, Power and the female students in his Emirati Studies class have also been collaborating in an Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA) initiative that aims to use a blend of archaeology, oral history and heritage management to uncover what its founder, Dr Mark Beech, describes as “the secret history of Saadiyat”.

“We call it the Saadiyat Coastal Heritage Project and the main aim is to make sure that the history of Saadiyat Island isn’t forgotten,” explains Beech, TCA’s head of coastal heritage and palaeontology.

“The idea is to have Emiratis involved with discovering their own heritage by involving students from Zayed University but also from NYUAD [New York University Abu Dhabi] whose campus is less than a kilometre away from one of the island’s main archaeological sites.”

Beech, who has been working in the UAE for 22 years, was one of the first people to realise Saadiyat’s potential when he worked as part of the team that surveyed the island for the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (Adias) in 2005.

“We found 15 or 16 locations where there was archaeological remains that were mostly in the form of pottery scatters, shell middens – clusters of discarded shells that had been processed – and we also found some settlement traces, clusters of stones and cooking areas where there were ancient hearths,” says the archaeologist.

“We collected as much of the archaeological material as we could, because we knew that a lot of the sites would be destroyed [by development], but we recommended that two areas should be protected.”

The areas Beech describes as sites ‘a’ and ‘b’ are both are on the eastern, mangrove-facing side of Saadiyat Island and the larger site, ‘b’, has been fenced by the island’s master developer, Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC).

Further north, site ‘a’ is a 40 metre-wide rocky outcrop that juts into the island’s lagoon-like inter-tidal zone where the daily movement of the tides, which frequently surround the outcrop with water, make the erection of a fence almost impossible.

“We didn’t find large stone houses on Saadiyat, but we did find clusters of stones possibly indicating tents or arish [palm] structures; we also have cooking places where people are cooking and processing fish and shellfish; and we have some small cairns and temporary mosque-type arrangements showing qibla,” says Beech.

Both sites are now listed for protection but the results of the earlier 2004-2005 Adias surveys, conducted by Beech and his former colleagues Heiko Kallweit and Richard Cutler, were never published and the thousands of pottery sherds and shells collected by the archaeologists were never processed in detail.

“The pottery scatter at site ‘b’ is quite large; we collected between 2,000 and 3,000 pottery sherds distributed over an area of around 200 by 50-60 metres and we have a cluster of around 10 hearths that show repeated cooking activity, which looks quite organised.”

It was with the idea of processing this material in mind that Beech approached Power a decade after the material had been archived, and in 2014 the idea of the Saadiyat Island Coastal Heritage Project started to become a reality.

“We made an agreement with Tim that the students would study and quantify the pottery but there was also 10 years of material eroding on the surface, so we thought we should go back and map the remaining material,” explains Beech.

“It’s an ideal job for introducing students to archaeological survey and pottery collection” says the TCA archaeologist Dr Anjana Lingareddy, who worked with Power to help train his students in the collection, mapping and processing of potsherds, a new batch of which were collected by Power’s students on a day-long field trip in March last year.

“We taught them how to collect pottery from the site in a systematic manner, to map it using differential GPS and to collect it in clusters so it was recorded properly, and then to put it in bags, carefully labelling each one.”

A specialist with a research background in late-Islamic archaeology, Power has been working in the Gulf since 2009 and has used the findings from his excavations in the oases of Al Ain to establish one of the first detailed chronologies for late-Islamic ceramics.

“The work I did in Al Ain was based on excavations and this gave us a vertical sequence, like the layers in a cake, with the earliest [pottery] at the bottom and the latest at the top,” the Englishman explains.

______

Saadiyat’s secrets uncovered

Podcast — John Dennehy talks to Nick Leech about its hidden history

In pictures — Meet the archaeologists behind uncovering Saadiyat

______

“Because the pottery came from multiple sites it allowed us, for the first time, to reconstruct the late Islamic sequence from around 1650 to 1950.”

Back at Zayed University, Lingareddy and Power then taught the students how to handle, recognise and categorise the finds in their care.

“It’s research-led teaching that encourages the students to think about the city in which they live and gets them involved in actual research,” explains Power.

“We counted the different types of pottery, put them into a spreadsheet and when we look at the data and process it, that allows us to date the period of occupation on the principal that fashions in pottery change over time just as they do in fashion.

“Not all of the periods are the same length, but we’re now able to divide the period between 1650 and 1950 into six periods, of not equal length, but of between 30 and 70 years.”

After many weeks of processing, the Zayed University team produced a series of results that not only revealed the likely date of Saadiyat’s occupation but which also sheds light on the island’s trade relationships in the region.

“Although this is a coastal site, it’s not a very cosmopolitan one. It’s plugged into local rather than international trade routes and 90 per cent of it is a type of cooking pottery known as Julfar Ware which comes from Ras Al Khaimah,” says Power.

“But what is interesting about the site is that it’s transitional and appears to date from the late 18th or early 19th century. It’s definitely pre-1820s or 1830s because there are no refined, European white wares that were being exported to India from places like Stoke-on-Trent and then being re-exported to the Gulf and are ubiquitous.”

Despite the evidence pointing to temporary, small-scale and very humble forms of occupation, much like the life Al Remaithi’s family lived on Saadiyat 200 years later, the date of the pottery is something that gets all of the members of the heritage project excited. “If we have that date, then the site becomes very interesting when we put it into its historical context, because that is when Abu Dhabi was established,” says Power.

For Beech and Power, the evidence from Saadiyat not only corresponds with the finds that have been made on other islands in the Abu Dhabi embayment, but also suggests that a more nuanced understanding of Abu Dhabi’s origins is required.

“What we find on Saadiyat is very similar to what we find on the other islands around Abu Dhabi and it comes from a similar time period,” says Beech.

“We have evidence of pottery scatters on Saadiyat Island and Ramhan Island and also on Yas, and even the remains of some stone mosques, which suggests that it’s a slightly romantic idea that people came to Abu Dhabi following the gazelle, discovered water, built the first watchtower and that there was only Abu Dhabi.”

For Power, some of the clues to understanding the wider Abu Dhabi area at this time lie not just in the archaeology, but also in the environment and in the patterns of life that persisted into living memory. “Today we think of Abu Dhabi as a city, but we’re dealing with a whole series of islands and sandbars that may not have been occupied constantly throughout the year, but which have communities that are trying to maximise the exploitation of what is, after all, a very marginal environment.

“But back in the day, the mangrove was a source of food, fuel and building materials, and that’s what I think these settlements are all about. We’re finding lots of shells of a particular type of shellfish that’s growing in the mangrove and we’re finding middens where these shells have been processed and so, arguably, these guys are collecting the shellfish and taking them to market in downtown Abu Dhabi or they’re coppicing the mangrove, collecting the poles and selling those.”

For NYUAD’s Dr Robert Parthesius, a maritime archaeologist who describes himself as “the new kid on the block” on Saadiyat, one of the most exciting prospects is the potential the project has to help to develop a distinctively local approach to Abu Dhabi’s history and heritage.

“Tim has firmly established the archaeology, but we would like to approach the subject a little more widely,” the Dutchman explains.

“When you see that development on Saadiyat Island is focused so firmly on the future, then you have to find ways to make links with the past.”

To achieve this, Parthesius has established a programme, “Meeting the Neighbours”, that is designed to not only give his students an introduction to the basic principles of archaeological fieldwork and heritage management, but to take advantage of the archaeological site and expertise that sit on NYUAD’s doorstep.

In December, Parthesius and his students worked with Beech and Lingareddy on a three-day excavation of site ‘b’, which sits between the NYUAD campus and a TDIC nursery that was established to grow palms and plants for Saadiyat’s modern landscape.

Next year he hopes to return with a more detailed excavation and to mount a Saadiyat Island Coastal Heritage Project exhibition at NYUAD that will present the findings to the public.

“I hope that, by running my course, the students will be able to look ahead to 2030, when development on Saadiyat will be well on its way, and dream up plans to include those heritage sites and a heritage trail within that development,” he says.

Although the archaeologist’s class is mixed, most of his students are Emirati and, as with the students at Zayed University, their studies have also inspired them to discuss the past with their parents and grandparents.

“The class is about heritage issues from a global and a local perspective, and more specifically, looking at how the UAE has changed over the last 40 years and the role that heritage has played in that,” explains Parthesius.

“Everybody is keen to find a pathway to preserve that heritage, not just in a physical sense, but to make the proper connections with the stories and the life that now only survives in festivals.”

Parthesius has spent most of his professional career working with local communities in island states such as Sri Lanka and Zanzibar, to understand what they want from their heritage and to develop models of heritage management that work, not just according to international criteria defined by bodies such as Unesco, but in ways that make sense to local populations.

“World heritage sites are often criticised for suppressing local notions of heritage, so I work to provide platforms for people to express their own vision about their own heritage,” he explains, citing his experience on the island of Mozambique as a case in point.

“It’s inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. It has a big Portuguese fort, a stone town and a small African settlement which is the most active part [of the island], while all of the heritage areas are deserted,” says the archaeologist.

“So we worked with the local community to help set up their own heritage places and the local tour guides now say that people no longer go to straight to the stone town to look at the empty buildings but go to the African village and listen to the local stories instead.”

The importance, for Parthesius, in developing alternative heritage models and bodies of knowledge, is not just to create jobs but to develop a sense of heritage that local people can benefit from and invest in emotionally, as well as economically.

His approach has particular resonance on Saadiyat, where the world’s most prestigious museum brands have been employed to create a cultural district that combines European notions of universalism with a perspective that is locally nuanced.

For Beech and his colleague Lingareddy however, the most immediate goal is to disabuse decision-makers of the notion that the island is a terra nullius where the only constraints on development are those dictated by the imaginations of architects and finance.

“Everybody has ignored the archaeology and the recent economic history of Saadiyat which is why we need to talk about it,” says Beech. “So our plan is to publish and to mount an exhibition, hopefully at NYUAD, where we can capture and present some of the archaeological evidence and the oral histories that we’ve found and I think that it’s important for that to happen on Saadiyat.

“We want to make people more aware and to educate people that this island is, and never has been, a blank canvas.”

Nick Leech is a feature writer at The National.

Read more from The National

Has a lost Arab capital been found on the UAE-Oman border?

Stealing from history: The looting and destruction of Iraqi and Syrian heritage

History hides in a diamond that has long lost its sheen

The mystery falcon of Tanker Mai: a softer symbol from simpler times

Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
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  • Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
  • Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
 
 
Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
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Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'

Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.

Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.

"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.

"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.

"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."

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Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

THE LIGHT

Director: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger

Rating: 3/5

A cryptocurrency primer for beginners

Cryptocurrency Investing  for Dummies – by Kiana Danial 

There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine. 

Ms Danial is a finance coach and former currency analyst who writes for Nasdaq. Her broad-strokes primer (2019) breaks down investing in cryptocurrency into baby steps, while explaining the terms and technologies involved.

Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this  book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.

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MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:

Ajax 2-3 Tottenham

Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate

Final: June 1, Madrid

TERMINAL HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENCE (THAAD)

What is THAAD?

It is considered to be the US's most superior missile defence system.

Production:

It was created in 2008.

Speed:

THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.

Abilities:

THAAD is designed to take out  ballistic missiles as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".

Purpose:

To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.

Range:

THAAD can target projectiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 150 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

Creators:

Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.

UAE and THAAD:

In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then stationed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.

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N*E*R*D

(I Am Other/Columbia)

The Details

Kabir Singh

Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series

Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa

Rating: 2.5/5 

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

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Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

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The distance learning plan

Spring break will be from March 8 - 19

Public school pupils will undergo distance learning from March 22 - April 2. School hours will be 8.30am to 1.30pm

Staff will be trained in distance learning programmes from March 15 - 19

Teaching hours will be 8am to 2pm during distance learning

Pupils will return to school for normal lessons from April 5

Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare

Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.

Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Pathaan
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Siddharth%20Anand%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shah%20Rukh%20Khan%2C%20Deepika%20Padukone%2C%20John%20Abraham%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Why it pays to compare

A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.

Route 1: bank transfer

The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.

Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount

Total received: €4,670.30 

Route 2: online platform

The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.

Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction

Total received: €4,756

The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.

if you go

The flights 

Etihad and Emirates fly direct to Kolkata from Dh1,504 and Dh1,450 return including taxes, respectively. The flight takes four hours 30 minutes outbound and 5 hours 30 minute returning. 

The trains

Numerous trains link Kolkata and Murshidabad but the daily early morning Hazarduari Express (3’ 52”) is the fastest and most convenient; this service also stops in Plassey. The return train departs Murshidabad late afternoon. Though just about feasible as a day trip, staying overnight is recommended.

The hotels

Mursidabad’s hotels are less than modest but Berhampore, 11km south, offers more accommodation and facilities (and the Hazarduari Express also pauses here). Try Hotel The Fame, with an array of rooms from doubles at Rs1,596/Dh90 to a ‘grand presidential suite’ at Rs7,854/Dh443.

How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet

Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465

Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder

Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km

The specs

Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six

Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm

Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto

Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km

Price: From Dh796,600

On sale: now

BRIEF SCORES

England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)  
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)

Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1

The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now

Where to buy and try:

Nutritional yeast

DesertCart

Organic Foods & Café

Bulletproof coffee

Wild & The Moon

Amasake

Comptoir 102

DesertCart

Organic Foods & Café

Charcoal drinks and dishes

Various juice bars, including Comptoir 102

Bridgewater Tavern

3 Fils

Jackfruit

Supermarkets across the UAE

Timeline

1947
Ferrari’s road-car company is formed and its first badged car, the 125 S, rolls off the assembly line

1962
250 GTO is unveiled

1969
Fiat becomes a Ferrari shareholder, acquiring 50 per cent of the company

1972
The Fiorano circuit, Ferrari’s racetrack for development and testing, opens

1976
First automatic Ferrari, the 400 Automatic, is made

1987
F40 launched

1988
Enzo Ferrari dies; Fiat expands its stake in the company to 90 per cent

2002
The Enzo model is announced

2010
Ferrari World opens in Abu Dhabi

2011
First four-wheel drive Ferrari, the FF, is unveiled

2013
LaFerrari, the first Ferrari hybrid, arrives

2014
Fiat Chrysler announces the split of Ferrari from the parent company

2015
Ferrari launches on Wall Street

2017
812 Superfast unveiled; Ferrari celebrates its 70th anniversary

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