Ancient mountain village offers adventure for UAE hikers

Now Leopard Canyon is being opened up to tours that will allow visitors the chance to see a very different side of the country.

The going may be tough, and scrambling over loose rocks and boulders is the norm, but a hike in Ras Al Khaimah’s Leopard Canyon is its own reward. Finding a long-deserted mountain village among the rocky outcrops is a bonus. P J van Schalkwyk for The NationalShow less

RAS AL KHAIMAH // It is the long-abandoned village that provides a glimpse into the simple yet self-sufficient lives of Emirati mountain dwellers who survived on what nature provided.

Now Leopard Canyon is being opened to tours, allowing visitors the chance to see a very different side of life in the UAE.

Remains of stone shelters, storage houses and a clay tandoor-style oven can be found between the high, overhanging rocks of the Ras Al Khaimah wadi.

The remains of small caves reveal how simple yet challenging life was.

The path to and from the village is rocky; visitors must scramble, avoid slippery crevices and balance on hanging rocks.

The canyon and village are not unique, but are one of the very few such places that are accessible today.

“You can find these dwellings in other places in the UAE, but they are pretty out of reach, while this one is accessible,” said Sarah El Jurf, from UAE Trekkers, an adventure travel firm that led a group of hikers to the site on Friday.

Ms El Jurf came across the canyon when she was looking for hiking routes and immediately realised it would pique the interest of tourists and city residents looking to explore the country.

Stone structures with a gap in the shape of a door are believed to have been used as storage facilities for the village. The tandoor oven outside one shows how hunters cooked meat and the vegetables that would grow in the arid climate.

“It is high enough for the food to remain cool and dry,” said Ms El Jurf, “but makes you wonder what kind of food is so precious that would want to save it all the way up here.”

There are cycles of high-layered rock mountains which used to be sea bed, millions of years ago.

“That shows the depth of the sea level when they were formed,” Ms El Jurf said. “Who knows what else is out there, the UAE is filled with those hidden wadi gems.”

At present, little is known about the dwellings, including when they were abandoned.

Nomadic communities still exist in parts of the emirates today, although none are believed to live in such a primitive habitat.

Ms El Jurf and her company hope that the Government will see the potential of such tourism and invest resources, including looking into the history of such dwellings.

“Hopefully, if people are interested enough, the Government will fund those places to become official hiking and official mountaineering sites that people can visit, without ruining the environment,” she said.

Sarah Shaw, 33, an Emirati and one of those on the first tour at the weekend, said seeing how people once lived put modern living into perspective.

“In terms of the way they used to build their homes, they only needed the basics, and that shows how much clutter we have,” she said.

“There is the function of the building, and the form followed.”

Ms Shaw said the village, with its communal oven, showed how important community living was.

“This was a good reminder of how people were meant to live in nature, and not so detached socially from one another,” she said.

“It was Arab nature to welcome guests. And on the third day, the guest becomes one of the family. I don’t care if we started driving Ferraris ... why did we have to lose that?

“These things teach you that you have to be social, look how many nationalities came here. Heritage is not only about the UAE, it is world heritage.”