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05/04/2006 Entry: "Emirates Heritage Village: Helping the young relive traditions"

here is a place, removed from the tumultuous streets of the capital, where one can step back in time and experience a simpler way of life. A sanctuary of culture and tradition, the Emirates Heritage Village sits on the Abu Dhabi breakwater with the backdrop of the capital's towering skyline in stark contrast.

The visible disparity between the UAE of seafaring and Bedouin days and the country's current distinctive urban feel is nowhere more omnipresent than on the 1,600-sq m stretch of land, where scenes from traditional daily life in the Emirates can be relived...

Open to the public every day of the week, the Emirates Heritage Village attracts close to 1,000 visitors a week according to Al Falasi, especially during the milder winter and spring months.

Visitors at the Emirates Heritage Village can journey into the past in three different sections: the sea, the desert, and agriculture. Each section showcases the customary ways of life of the UAE, where people can see wool tents (bait al sha'ar), seamen's houses designed especially to shield them from the often harsh environment, and irrigation systems manned by an ox.

"I don't believe in our heritage as just the past, but about embodying it and making it real," says Al Falasi. "Visitors need to see it, see women cooking traditional food, people making handicrafts and just the way life used to be in the UAE."

The desert section rests on red sand brought in from oases and camels, horses and falcons are in plain view. The Emirates Heritage Village offers falcon training courses to those who are interested, while visitors can take a breather in the hadhira, or a makeshift tented coffee shop where Bedouin used to meet.

Palm carpets, rice bags and rope lie nearby, while a clothes shop and an herb and spice shop are open to those looking to buy a little piece of tradition. The area designed to showcase life by the sea holds a beach house erected on white sand. A big wooden door welcomes you into the quaint house, where the barjil, or a wide and open tower set up on top of the house, evenly distributes cool air from the sea... MORE

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