49 Fun Facts About United Arab Emirates

How many emirates make up the United Arab Emirates?

Seven. Only six signed up when the federation was founded; the last one held out and joined ten weeks later.

Emirates flies from Dubai, but which national airline has its home in Abu Dhabi?

Etihad Airways. It was created by royal decree in 2003 as Abu Dhabi's own airline, and the emirate soon pulled out of Gulf Air, the carrier it had shared with its neighbours.

Which emirate was the last to join the UAE, in February 1972?

Ras Al Khaimah. Its ruler stayed out for ten weeks, joining only once the new federation promised to back his claim to islands that Iran had just seized.

Before independence the emirates were a British protectorate known collectively as what?

The Trucial States. The name came from the truces the coastal sheikhs signed with Britain from 1820, ending the sea raids that had earned the shore the label Pirate Coast.

Which Paris museum has had an Abu Dhabi outpost bearing its name since 2017?

The Louvre. Under a 2007 deal between the two governments, Abu Dhabi is paying France hundreds of millions of euros to use the museum's name for decades.

Before oil, which industry sustained the Gulf sheikhdoms until it collapsed in the 1930s?

Pearling. The Depression and Japan's cultured pearls wiped out the trade in the 1930s, three decades before the first oil exports.

Dubai's Burj Al Arab hotel, standing on its own artificial island, was shaped to resemble what?

A ship's sail. Architect Tom Wright was asked for a landmark to rival the Eiffel Tower, and modelled it on the billowing sail of a dhow, an Arabian trading boat.

Which ocean explorer led an undersea oil survey off Abu Dhabi for BP in 1954?

Jacques Cousteau. BP approached him after reading his book The Silent World, and his divers hammered rock samples off the seabed by hand, with a cage to retreat into when sharks came close.

On the eve of independence in 1971, Iran seized which islands claimed by the emirates?

The Tunbs and Abu Musa. Iranian troops landed just as Britain's protection treaties ran out, two days before the UAE was founded, and the dispute has never been settled.

Most UAE residents come from which part of the world?

South Asia. Oil wealth set off decades of building that the small local population could not staff, so the country recruited workers from abroad, who now far outnumber its own citizens.

Which skyscraper did the Burj Khalifa replace as the world's tallest building?

Taipei 101. The Dubai tower was called Burj Dubai until its opening day in 2010, when it was renamed after Abu Dhabi's ruler, whose emirate had just handed Dubai $10 billion to pay its debts.

In February 2021 the UAE became the first Arab country to reach Mars with a probe named what?

Hope. Its backers chose the name to inspire young Arabs across the region, and the probe spent more than half a year on the journey from Earth.

A 19-year-old's contest entry in 1971 became which UAE national symbol?

The flag. Abdullah Al Maainah beat more than a thousand entries, but nobody told him: he found out by peering over a palace fence at the flag flying on its pole.

The UAE's currency, the dirham, is pegged to what?

The US dollar. The peg has held at 3.6725 dirhams since 1997, so the currency rises and falls with America's rather than with the price of the UAE's own oil.

Which tax did the UAE introduce in 2018, at 5%?

Value-added tax. It arrived on New Year's Day under an agreement among the Gulf states, and has given a federal budget long reliant on oil a steady new stream of revenue.

Which is the smallest emirate in the UAE by area?

Ajman. At about 260 square kilometres it is easily the smallest emirate, yet around half a million people live there, several times the population of its bigger neighbour Umm Al Quwain.

Which emirate is the only one with its coast on the Gulf of Oman rather than the Persian Gulf?

Fujairah. Because it faces the open ocean, a pipeline opened in 2012 carries Abu Dhabi's crude to its port, so tankers can load without entering the Gulf at all.

Wadi Madha, an exclave surrounded by the UAE and itself containing the UAE exclave Nahwa, belongs to which country?

Oman. Asked around 1940 to pick a ruler, Madha's elders are said to have chosen the distant sultan, trusting him to guard their water, while every village around them sided with local sheikhs.

Which two countries share a land border with the UAE?

Oman and Saudi Arabia. Until a 1974 treaty redrew the frontier, the UAE also touched a third neighbour, and Emirati leaders reopened that deal in 2004.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi holds which world record?

Largest hand-knotted carpet. Woven in Iran in nine pieces, it was shipped to Abu Dhabi and joined together inside the prayer hall, where it covers more than 5,600 square metres.

Abu Dhabi's Grand Prix was the first Formula One race to do what?

Start in daylight and finish at night. The first race in 2009 began at 5pm with sunset 43 minutes away, so the floodlights were lit from the start to make the slide into darkness seamless.

To end the use of children riding racing camels, what did UAE camel races adopt instead?

Robot jockeys. After an outcry over child riders the UAE banned them, and operators now race alongside the track in SUVs, working the robots' whips by remote control.

Which traditional Emirati sport is on UNESCO's list of humanity's intangible cultural heritage?

Falconry. It began as a way of catching food in the desert, and the birds are now so prized that Abu Dhabi runs a public hospital just for them.

The UAE's only World Cup finals appearance came at the 1990 tournament in which host country?

Italy. The UAE lost all three group games, yet Khalid Ismail still scored against West Germany, the team that went on to lift the trophy.

Which Premier League club is owned by a group controlled by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed?

Manchester City. Sheikh Mansour's group bought the club in 2008, and four years later it won the league for the first time since 1968.

Which world sporting body moved its headquarters from London to Dubai in 2005?

The International Cricket Council. It left its old home at Lord's after the British government refused it tax concessions, and is now based at Dubai Sports City.

In August 2020 the UAE normalised relations with Israel under which US-brokered agreement?

The Abraham Accords. The name nods to the patriarch shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and Abu Dhabi has since opened a mosque, a church and a synagogue on a single site.

In April 2026 the UAE announced it was quitting which organisation after almost six decades as a member?

OPEC. Abu Dhabi had joined in 1967, before the UAE even existed, and leaving on 1 May 2026 freed the country to pump more oil than its quota allowed.

Barakah, opened in the UAE, is the first facility of what kind on the Arabian Peninsula?

Nuclear power plant. Built by a South Korean consortium, its four reactors now supply about a quarter of the electricity in a country far better known for its oil.

Which vast sand desert of southern Arabia reaches into the south of the UAE?

The Empty Quarter. Explorer Wilfred Thesiger crossed its dunes by camel with Bedouin guides in the 1940s and told the story in his book Arabian Sands.

Since 2022 the UAE's government working week has ended at midday on which day?

Friday. The UAE swapped its old Friday-Saturday weekend for Saturday and Sunday, and the half-day leaves the afternoon free for the main weekly prayers.

In 1901 Dubai's ruler drew merchants from across the Gulf by declaring the town what?

A free port. Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher scrapped taxes on imports and exports just as Persia was raising its own, and traders from the port of Lingeh moved their businesses to Dubai.

Arabic is the UAE's official language, but which other language appears beside it on road and shop signs?

English. With citizens far outnumbered by residents from around the world, it has become the country's most commonly spoken language and the everyday tongue of business.

As of 2024, men outnumbered women about two to one in the UAE, a ratio exceeded only in which country?

Qatar. Both imbalances come from mass immigration: most of the workers recruited from abroad are men of working age, and they far outnumber the citizens.

Which famous Emirati sweet, small deep-fried dough balls drizzled with date syrup, is served at celebrations?

Machboos, spiced rice with meat, and threed, bread soaked in stew, are the savoury staples, and coffee comes with cardamom or saffron.

Which global event, delayed a year by the pandemic, did Dubai host from October 2021?

A World Expo. Expo 2020 kept its name despite opening a year late, and its site lived on as Expo City Dubai, which hosted the COP28 climate summit in 2023.

Who could vote in the UAE's first national elections, in 2006?

Citizens the rulers chose. Fewer than 7,000 of more than 300,000 adult citizens were named to the electoral colleges, and they elected just half the members of a council that can only advise.

Which body, made up of the rulers of the emirates, elects the UAE's president?

The Federal Supreme Council. The rulers choose the president from among themselves, though in practice the job has always gone to the ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Which British prime minister announced in 1968 that Britain would end its treaties protecting the Gulf sheikhdoms?

Harold Wilson. Weeks after devaluing the pound, his Labour government decided it could no longer afford bases east of Suez and would pull British forces out of the Gulf by the end of 1971.

Which two Gulf states were meant to join the federation but became independent separately in 1971?

Bahrain and Qatar. Nine sheikhdoms spent three years trying to agree a single union, but this pair walked away and declared independence months before the rest united.

The Dubai airline Emirates put its name on which Premier League club's new stadium in 2006?

Arsenal. The airline signed a £100 million deal in 2004, two years before the ground opened, buying both the stadium's name and the front of the team's shirts.

Which theme park operator announced in 2025 its first Middle East park, in Abu Dhabi?

Disney. The Yas Island resort will be owned and run by the local developer Miral under licence, with Disney's Imagineers designing the rides rather than the company building the park itself.

The UAE sits just south of which strategic waterway through which much of the world's oil is shipped?

The Strait of Hormuz. In 2024 tankers carried about a fifth of the oil the world consumes through it, which is why the UAE built a pipeline to load crude on its far coast instead.

In 2020, the UAE hosted the entire season of which foreign cricket competition during the pandemic?

The Indian Premier League. Organisers chose a host that had rescued them before: in 2014 the opening matches moved to the UAE because security forces at home were tied up with a general election.

Snow was first recorded in the UAE in December 2004 on which mountain in the far north of the country?

Jebel Jais. Rising to about 1,900 metres, its upper slopes can drop below freezing on winter nights, and snow has settled there several more times since that first cold snap.

Sheikh Zayed turned which island into a wildlife reserve, planting millions of trees and releasing oryx?

Sir Bani Yas. The island now holds thousands of free-roaming animals, among them an oryx species that had died out in the wild by the early 1970s.

Which Emirati club reached the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup final, losing to Real Madrid?

Al Ain. Entered only as champions of the host nation, they knocked out South America's champions River Plate on penalties before losing the final 4-1.

What is Salik, launched in Dubai in July 2007?

An electronic toll system. Drivers pay more at rush hour and nothing in the small hours, a sliding scale Dubai brought in during 2025 to thin its peak traffic.

Which emirate held the title Cultural Capital of the Arab World in 1998?

Sharjah. Unlike its neighbours it bans the sale of alcohol and markets itself on books and museums instead, and UNESCO named it World Book Capital for 2019.