This east-coast port was long cut off by the Hajar Mountains. A new highway has cut travel times just as arts and cafés spring up to mix the hip with the history.
BY MELANIE SWAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHUKHRAT GAFUROV
Khorfakkan has long offered a gentler pace, far from the bristling high rises and deadlines of modern city life. But the centuries-old former Portuguese colony, an exclave of Sharjah on the Gulf of Oman, is undergoing a revival. Its sandy corniche, overlooked by the majestic Hajar Mountains, is undergoing urban regeneration and a cultural push. A new highway has cut travel time between Sharjah and Khorfakkan to just 45 minutes, turning the remote outpost into an easy escape.
As you drive, the landscape changes from warm, rolling sand dunes to a terrain that is rocky but verdant. The jagged mountains appear and tower all around. Beyond a new tunnel system—an engineering feat of five tunnels bored through the mountains, including Al Sidra, the longest tunnel in the Middle East—the road opens to a spectacular vista of the Al Rafisah Dam.
The first stop en route to the old port town is a chance to take in nature. Built in the 1980s, the dam has recently undergone a major renovation to make the most of dramatic scenery of the mountains, which loom over an azure reservoir and a man-made waterfall. Walkways and picnic spots surround the lush site. Boats on the lake, hiking and climbing cater to those seeking adventure. Views from the restaurant offer a chance to reflect.
The nearby Wadi Shea Fortress was part of the redevelopment. Visitors can reach the restored fort via a kilometre-long walkway which winds around the palm-fringed dam, along the mountain’s edge, through old plantations and up to the fort.
Khorfakkan was captured by the Portuguese Navy in the early 16th century in a bid to gain control of vital trade routes between India and Europe. Many commodities were grown and traded locally, including wheat, millet, citrus fruits, figs and dates. Khorfakkan quickly became one of the largest ports of the time. In 1507, Afonso de Albuquerque, a Portuguese general and the Duke of Goa, sacked the city, razing much of it. He ordered his men to cut off the ears and nose of those who resisted. It is only in the past 49 years of the UAE’s union that the city’s history has come into focus as archaeologists work to unpick the layers. At the entrance to the city, the Resistance Monument stands as a permanent reminder of a turbulent past and testament to the steadfastness of the Khorfakkan people in the face of invasion.
Old photographs, city plans and the memories of older residents have been harnessed to breathe new life into the city’s historical sites. Several are being restored or rebuilt, including the fort, the old town, the city wall, the old souk and the 15th-century Al Adwani Tower. The Al Hisn Museum, a renovated fort in the city centre, now tells the story of archaeological remains as well as several of the recently discovered rock carvings for which the area is well known. The mountain carvings offer valuable historical insights, depicting people hunting or dancing, walking or riding on horseback. Others reflect the local flora and fauna, while more recently Arabic and Kufic scripts have been discovered. In a nod to the importance of local knowledge, all new staff at the museum are graduates from Khorfakkan, with backgrounds in history, social sciences and archaeology, a new generation of UAE historians.
Old photographs, city plans and the memories of older residents have been harnessed to breathe new life into the city’s historical sites.
Parallel to work to showcase history is a bold move to usher in the modern. Edgy street art is popping up, notably around the new corniche. A striking 40-metre-long ocean-inspired piece by Dubai-based artist Dina Saadi is the largest mural she has painted. The piece she refers to as “a very small fish with a very big personality” is part of Maraya Art Centre’s street art initiative, Jedariya. The mural brings a sense of urban cool to the waterfront development, a colourful contrast to the grey rocky surrounds and white sands.
“I think street art is essential in any city,” Saadi says. “Public art is free and accessible for everyone. It doesn’t only brighten up an area and make it happier, but it can inspire and raise awareness. It helps increase the ownership of a place and makes people love and take care of their neighbourhoods and cities more, especially if the art is made by local and resident artists who lived and experienced those places.”
Coffee lover Saif Jasim Almidfa is the owner of Drowsy, a concept coffee shop in the heart of the new corniche development. The café is modern and slick, decorated with the grey rocks of the nearby mountains and a minimal grey concrete, which juxtaposes the old and the new. Its waterfront location offers views across to the mountains it has brought inside.
“We wanted to create something unique, something industrial but linked to the mountains of Khorfakkan. People visit because it has that feeling of sitting between mountains,” he explains. In the next two months, more restaurants are slated to open, including Asian, Indian and Arabic cuisines, so there are plans to make the area into a gastronomic hub.
In spite of being Emirati, Almidfa had never been to Khorfakkan before exploring it as a potential location for his coffee concept. He calls it one of the country’s hidden gems. “It feels like home. It’s a very small community and I know almost everyone here now.”
The town’s port is a popular cruise stop. In addition to the white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, there are a growing number of reasons to hop ashore. “Tourists want to see culture, history and nature, and they have this all in Khorfakkan,” he says.
“What they have done is beautiful in a modern way. It brings back all these beautiful old memories.”
Ali Omran, an Emirati photographer and filmmaker who has spent the past 18 years between Sharjah and Khorfakkan, says it is the people who make this port town special. “Everyone knows each other. It’s like one family,” he says. It has come a long way since his childhood, when he would visit with his father and there was little more than the beach and swimming for entertainment.
The changes, he says, are welcome. They have instilled a sense of pride in the local community and have showcased some of the city’s greatest landmarks, including the iconic Al Rabi Tower. The octagonal tower—a watchtower built by the Al Naqbi family in 1915 and visible from around the city—has a unique amphitheatre-like setting, now made accessible by a popular hiking route, a newly paved road and a viewing platform.
A short walk from the restored souk shows how far the city has come. Abandoned buildings stand as relics to another time. Lawyer Abdullah Al Naqbi is one of thousands of Khorfakkan locals who work in other cities, while witnessing the rapid pace of change in the place he calls home. “Even with the redevelopment, there is still the feeling of when I was growing up,” he says. “They didn’t go all out with modernising and developing the place. You still feel at home.” It is a place where tradition is never far away, from the old rituals of communities walking between a bride and groom’s homes laden with henna, gold and gifts, to the old makeshift majlis, where local men gather to drink tea and watch football.
Al Naqbi remembers the days before the redevelopment when going to swim in the dam’s reservoir was a long and arduous trek across the mountains. He still goes to auction with his father to buy fish, made into malih, the traditional salted-fish dish which families still eat today. The redevelopment, he says, is a tribute to, not an erosion of, the town’s rich heritage.
“What they have done is beautiful in a modern way. It brings back all these beautiful old memories,” he smiles. “The older generation still sit in the same spot on the beach as they’ve done for years, in spite of the new corniche development. It’s truly where old meets new and it’s how this new face of the town meets the traditional face of its past.”
