Geography of the United Arab Emirates

The land border with Qatar in the Khor Al Adaid area is a source of long-running dispute (in fact, whether it even shares a land border with Qatar is in dispute). The total area of the UAE is approximately 83,600 square kilometres (32,300 square miles). The country's exact size is unknown because of disputed claims to several islands in the Persian Gulf, because of the lack of precise information on the size of many of these islands, and because most of its land boundaries, especially with Saudi Arabia, remain undemarcated. The largest emirate, Abu Dhabi, accounts for 87 percent of the UAE's total area (72,732 km² (28,082 sq mi)). The smallest emirate, Ajman, encompasses only 259 km² (100 sq mi).

Boundaries

The UAE stretches for more than 650 km (400 miles) along the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. Most of the coast consists of salt pans that extend far inland. A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 637 km² of tidal flats in the United Arab Emirates, making it the 40th ranked country in terms of tidal flat extent. The largest natural harbor is at Dubai, although other ports have been dredged at Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and elsewhere. Numerous islands are found in the Persian Gulf, and the ownership of some of them has been the subject of international disputes with both Iran and Qatar. The smaller islands, as well as many coral reefs and shifting sandbars, are a menace to navigation. Strong tides and occasional windstorms further complicate ship movements near the shore.

These northern emirates on the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman are part of the Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert ecoregion.

South and west of Abu Dhabi, vast, rolling sand dunes merge into the Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter) of Saudi Arabia. The desert area of Abu Dhabi includes two important oases with adequate underground water for permanent settlements and cultivation. The extensive Liwa Oasis is in the south near the undefined border with Saudi Arabia, and about 200 km (120 miles) to the northeast is Al Buraymi Oasis, which extends on both sides of the Abu Dhabi-Oman border.

Prior to withdrawing from the area in 1971, Britain delineated the internal borders among the seven emirates in order to pre-empt territorial disputes that might hamper formation of the federation. In general, the rulers of the emirates accepted the British intervention, but in the case of boundary disputes between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and also between Dubai and Sharjah, conflicting claims were not resolved until after the UAE became independent. The most complicated borders were in the Western Mountains, where five of the emirates contested jurisdiction over more than a dozen enclaves.

Mountains

The UAE also extends for about 90 km (56 miles) along the Gulf of Oman, an area known as Al-Batinah coast. The Western Hajar Mountains (Jibāl Al-Ḥajar Al-Gharbī), rising in places to 2,500 m (8,200 ft), separate Al-Batinah coast from the rest of the UAE. Beginning at the UAE-Oman border on the Persian Gulf coast of the Ras Musandam (Musandam Peninsula), the Western Mountains extend southeastward for about 150 km (93 miles) to the southernmost UAE-Oman frontier on the Gulf of Oman. The range continues as the Eastern Hajar Mountains (Jibāl Al-Ḥajar Ash-Sharqī) for more than 500 km (310 miles) into Oman. The steep mountain slopes run directly to the shore in many places. Nevertheless, there are small harbors at Dibba Al-Hisn, Kalba, and Khor Fakkan on the Gulf of Oman. In the vicinity of Fujairah, where the mountains do not approach the coast, there are sandy beaches.