Inside UAE's 210,000-year-old site: Ancient caves, coral reefs from dinosaur era turned mountains

Sharjah: Step into Sharjah's newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site and you are not just walking through desert wadis and limestone caves. You are also traversing an ancient seabed where marine creatures thrived during the age of dinosaurs, now transformed into fossil-rich mountains thanks to tectonic forces that pushed them skyward.

Gulf News was among select media invited to the Faya Palaeolandscape, the UAE's second United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site inscribed earlier in 2025 on Sunday. The special tour revealed wadi caves where early humans sought shelter 210,000 years ago, and dramatic fossil formations from the prehistoric period.

The journey began with a visit to the Mleiha Archaeological Centre, situated next to the Mleiha National Park where Faya's journey to world heritage status is displayed through exhibits.

Here, visitors discover how Faya revealed an alternative path of early human migration from Africa to Arabia; not through the Sinai Peninsula as commonly believed, but along the southern fringe of the Rub' al Khali desert into southeastern Arabia.

As we made our way across the desert dunes later, we were led to exposed rock formations where marine fossils lay embedded. "In this place, there is very good preservation of marine fossils from the Cretaceous period. All this area was once an ancient shallow sea and seabed,” we were told.

When mountains were oceans

The brown sedimentary rocks visible across the landscape formed under the ocean through sediments compacting over millions of years. Evidence lies embedded in the rock faces: shells and fossilised sea creatures from the time of the dinosaurs, preserved in remarkably good condition.

"All of this formation was once the bottom of the sea, but now, due to geological forces, all of this has been popped up into the air because there are tectonic forces in action. If not for that, all of this would still be under the ground. But thanks to these geological forces, this is now a mountain, and all the marine creatures that are fossilised in the rocks have been exposed for us to see,” we were told.

Though currently covered by sand and dust, pouring water over these rocks reveals the fossils with stunning clarity, a technique that brought the ancient marine world back to life before your eyes.

Journey through time

The scale of this World Heritage Site is staggering. Spanning approximately 95,000 hectares, including a 30,000-hectare core zone and 65,000-hectare buffer zone, the Faya Palaeolandscape represents humanity's earliest footsteps outside Africa alongside geological wonders.  It is the first desert Paleolithic site on the World Heritage List.

"The core zone contains the archaeological, hydrological and geological attributes that make this site outstanding," explained Dr Osama Jamil Khan, World Heritage Site expert with the Sharjah Archaeology Authority. "The buffer zone ensures protection from any future development,” he said.

Three decades of archaeological excavations have revealed Faya's unique palaeolandscape. It is a landscape that existed in prehistoric past and offered more than mere shelter later. It became a critical refuge for early humans, with a rare, well-dated stratified sequence spanning from 210,000 to 6,000 years ago, unmatched anywhere in the Arabian Peninsula.

Shelter of ancient humans

The tour's first stop was Faya 1, where the collapsed remains of a massive rock shelter of hardened limestone stand as proof of the earliest human settlement in the area.

Layers from around 130,000 years ago have yielded the earliest known evidence for ‘anatomically modern humans’ outside the African continent. The stony slope began accumulating over 150,000 years ago, with Stone Age people walking on surfaces that are now deeply buried. A ladder descending underground indicates where these ancient surfaces once existed.

"At Faya 1, we discovered elongated flints, flakes and other stone tools. A total of 35,139 stone tools have been recorded so far from across the site," said Dr Khan.

Water, burial and ritual

The wadi caves of Faya 9, 10, 11 and 15 each tell distinct stories. Faya 15, where a water spring once existed, reveals an excavation trench with a cross-section through the site. Ashy grey bands indicate ancient fireplaces, while stone tools and arrowheads found here date to the fifth millennium BCE.

"In Faya 15, at the beginning of the wadi, remains of three human individuals and animal bones were found, along with lithic artefacts," Dr Khan noted.

Faya 10 served as a flint-knapping workshop for manufacturing tools from the fifth to eighth millenniums BCE. Rich outcrops of high-quality flint were exploited by Stone Age inhabitants. Later, it transformed into a ritual place for depositing cremated human bone remains, the oldest found in southeast Arabia.

The narrow caves of Faya 9 and 11 were used for burials during the Iron Age and late pre-Islamic periods. Faya 11, excavated in 2005, sits near the top of the slope with a round ceiling opening providing light and ventilation. Scattered human skeletal remains were discovered alongside stone and metal artefacts dating to the Neolithic Age (fifth millennium BCE) and Iron Age (first millennium BCE).

A visitors' platform at the top of the mountain path provides a commanding view of all three caves, offering perspective on how early humans chose these strategic locations for shelter and rituals.

Heritage of pride

Issa Yousef, director general of the Sharjah Archaeology Authority, highlighted the significance of this site’s achievement. "The inscription of the Faya site on the World Heritage List of the UNESCO represents a major achievement added to the record of the Emirate of Sharjah and the UAE in the field of heritage preservation."

He noted this achievement results from many years of meticulous excavation efforts, carried out under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, who has closely followed this initiative.

The World Heritage Site also encompasses the Al Buhais area from the Neolithic period and Al Buhais shelter from the Palaeolithic period, said Dr Khan. From Al Buhais 18 alone, researchers discovered 550 tombs with human remains, providing extraordinary insights into ancient burial practices, he said.

Archaeological findings also revealed that many animals had been hunted or domesticated during that period. Wild goats had lived in Mleiha area since prehistoric times. Oryx, camels, donkeys and the now extinct aurochs were also part of the natural resources in the area.

Some stone tools and artefacts are showcased at the visitor centre, while others are housed in museums and storage facilities due to the enormous quantity discovered. Everything is documented and accessible on the Sharjah Archaeology Authority's website, said Dr Khan.

A priceless legacy

Faya now stands as a key link on the journey to understanding ancient human roots. As Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, who is also a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Book Culture, says in a documentary by the Sharjah government screened at visitors’ centre, Faya is now the UAE's "priceless legacy that must be protected, celebrated and passed on with pride to future generations."

The Faya Palaeolandscape represents a critical step in humanity's spread across the planet, from the earliest anatomically modern humans who ventured out of Africa, through successive waves of settlement during favourable climatic periods, to the geological deep time when ancient seas covered these lands during the Cretaceous period.

UAE residents and visitors wishing to visit the Faya Palaeolandscape can approach the Mleiha Archaeological Centre to book a tour.