Sharjah

Sharjah covers an area of 2.590 km² and has 600.000 residents. It is the third biggest Emirate and the preferred Emirate for people working in Dubai. This has definitely to do with the significantly lower rents rather with the non-alcohol policy in Sharjah. Sharjah is the only Emirate where you can neither buy nor consume alcohol, also not in the international hotels.

Sharjah is located directly north of Dubai and stretches far into the inland. In addition to that it has to enclaves on the eastern shore of the Arabian peninsula towards the Gulf of Oman. That means that Sharjah is the only Emirate with coasts on two different seas. From the economical point of view it is quite preferable because some ships choose to unload or upload their goods on the east coast ports of Sharjah rather than to go the way via the Straight of Hormus into the Persian-Arabian Gulf. Although the goods have to be transported via truck on narrow roads, it seems to be economical. On the other side it leads to sometimes mile long traffic jams on the only road from the east coast. Another part of the economy is the international airport, the first of its kind in the UAE. Here the majority of the air freight service of the UAE is handled.

But the main attraction of Sharjah are the original souqs and the museums. Not without reason Sharjah is named the Cultural Capital of the UAE and in 1998 it was elected "Arab World's Cultural Capital" by the UNESCO.

Additionally Sharjah has the biggest and most prestigious university in the country.

Sharjah was the first Emirate in the focus of the western world. Here the first British Ambassador in the Trucial States, who became then finally the UAE. It had the first international airport and was the first Emirate who was entering the tourism industry.

From this cosmopolitanism is not very much left. Few decades ago there was a gap in mosque capacity and Saudi Arabia offered financial support if Sharjah would decide to change the laws according to the Islamic law (sharia).  And one part of it is not to serve and definitely not to consume alcohol. Sharjah it is also a little bit more conservative in regard of the clothes. It is not very much appreciated when western tourist walk around in shorts and short shirts. It could happen that they are asked by the police to dress a little bit more closed.