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    In the twenty years that I have lived here, I have seen a complete change in attitude towards "old UAE". Just after the tremendous economic boom that followed the discovery of oil, people only wanted to see new buildings, new gadgets, new cars, everything new and shiny and modern. I remember trying to take a photograph once of an old windtower house, when the inhabitants came out to shoo me away. When I asked why, they said that their house was old and ugly and they did not want it photographed. In those days it was left to a handful of Emirati to preserve the old ways of living and farming as a hobby and a few Western expatriates to renovate derelict windtower houses.

   Fortunately, this has changed. Old things have become valuable again. They are now seen as heritage.

   Unfortunately, very few of the old neighbourhoods are still intact. At first there were only a few small heritage villages in the rural parts of the country. There was one next to the ancient mosque at Bidiya on the East coast that featured a few huts with household utensils and animal shelters, while the showpiece was a 'shasha', an old rowing boat made of the midribs of palm trees. Another early heritage village was adjacent to the Hili gardens in Al Ain, which was later extended and improved.

   After the successful renovation of Sheikh Saeed's House in Shindagha, it became apparent that there was a huge interest in the history of this country among visitors. During one of the early shopping festivals a small heritage and diving village was created in Shindagha. This has grown over the years into an extensive exhibition of old buildings, shops and businesses, where older people show the younger generations what life was like in the days of their youth.

   Recently the government built another heritage village - this time in the countryside, in Hatta. An entire old village was reconstructed between the old Hatta towers. Those towers were built around 1880 from mountain rocks and mud bricks. They feature entrances that are 2.5 meter above ground, you entered via a rope. The tower that is included in the village now has a staircase going up.

   Strolling through the village gives a person quite a good idea what it was like in those days.

   Crossing a 'maidan', where people used to meet and talk, sitting on wooden benches below a large tree, you reach the fort. It is not clear whether this fort is a renovated old fort or a completely new reconstruction of a fort. The effect is the same - it shows the place where the people of the village could find refuge in case of attack and where they would come to meet the local sheikh. The wooden gate is elaborately carved and gives access to a large courtyard between fortified walls. On the left immediately after the entrance is the 'majlis', a long room with comfortable cushions along the walls, lit by small, high windows and burning lamps. As in all old buildings, the width of the rooms was limited by the length of the wooden beams that were used to support the roof. These beams would be made either of palm tree trunks or mangrove tree trunks. In either case they rarely exceed three or four meters. So most rooms are long and narrow.

  On the other side of the gate were the living quarters - small bedrooms with small four-poster beds and some storage space. A staircase leads up to the main defense tower. The lower room in the tower houses a collection of interesting old arms, mainly guns. Lifelike mannequins crouch by the slit windows to fire at the enemy. Another staircase leads to the top of the tower that provides a good view across the adjacent palm groves and valleys.

   A farmhouse has been reconstructed just opposite the fort. The courtyard is spacious, formed by several buildings in stone as well as a 'barasti' (palmfrond) kitchen and open-fronted animal shelters. Another house shows how juice was extracted from dates. The harvested dates were placed on a ribbed floor and the weight of the bunched dates forced the juice out of the fruit, so that it ran through the gullies between the ribs to a collection point. In an adjacent school building, a teacher sits reading the Quran to some boys. Further on animal shelters, a roofed market place and a house that has an exhibit of products derived from the palm tree line the path that leads up to the original old tower.

   The buildings are all made with the original materials. The palm tree played a major role in the construction of the old dwellings and outhouses. The dried leaves ('areesj' or 'barasti') were tied together with rope made of palm tree fiber. This fiber is harvested from the place along the trunk where the old leaves have been cut down. It is twirled into strong rope and used for many purposes. A frame of strong palm leaf midribs was tied together with intricate knots, and the 'barasti' was attached to these frames. In this way a shelter was made that allowed the breeze to play through the leafy cover, while providing shade from the hot sun. One of the structures showed that graceful pillars were made by placing many midribs parallel to one another to form a round bunch, which was then wound with many strands of rope.

   During the recent Eid celebrations, Hatta heritage village was the site for a cultural show. Local villagers are involved in these exhibitions and shows. Twenty-two year old Ali Mattar, who lives in Hatta, was present every day to teach young boys how to dance the 'Rasfah' - a dance which has 2 lines of boys and men waving staffs and chanting patriotic poems. Ali said: "The purpose of doing this is to keep our grandfather's legacy going. I watched and learned from my father, he from his father."

   Several local women were conducting open-air cookouts and selling local delicacies such as 'muhala' and ' chubab'. Other women showed off their weaving and plaiting skills as they made the colorful 'machabe' - a conical hat to cover food - and the 'sarrood' - the round mat that covers the floor as a kind of table cloth. Others were adept at constructing baskets and fans. On display were the large round all-purpose baskets ('al jefir') and the smaller round basket for preserving dates ('al yerat') as well as the basket with long handles that are used to collect the dates from the trees ('al mukhrafa')

   There was also a souvenir shop doing brisk business selling pottery, rugs, date honey and other items. The village is quite extensive and it takes time to see everything. The one non-traditional thing that spoiled the day for me was the fact that much of the walkway was paved with uneven rocks that made the going difficult, so that you could not look around without the fear of tripping. It did not look authentic and it could easily be the cause of a sprained ankle or worse.

   Recently another heritage village was opened in Masafi - a completely private initiative of UAE national Ali Al Ghumaish. Since many years Al Ghumaish collected traditional household and farming tools, which are put on display in 'areesj' (palm frond) or 'al sha'r' (animal skin) reconstructed abodes.

   "Visitors can see how the handicrafts are made and how traditional cuisine is cooked. They can relax in the large Bedouin tent and enjoy traditional Arab hospitality. They can get a feel of the traditional atmosphere and enjoy the 'sheesha' (water pipe) and 'qahwa' (traditional Arab coffee)", says Ali. The Masafi complex is surrounded by lush gardens that feature a waterfall.

   In Ras al Khaimah, a heritage centre was set up by a local youth club, while in Fujeirah the government converted a park adjacent to the old fort into a heritage village with the usual 'areesj' houses. But here the centre piece of the exhibition is the well with the water-hauling system in which a bull is led down a steeply inclined ramp, while hauling a goatskin full of water from the depths of the well to the top, where the water is dumped either into containers or into the 'falaj' (irrigation channel) system that provides the fields with water.