Sharjah keeps the Gulf's deepest historical archive: an 18th-century ruler's fort, six restored merchant quarters, Islamic manuscripts spanning 1,400 years, and Mleiha's tombs from 130,000 years of human settlement. Three days trace it chronologically.
Built 1823 by Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi as the Qawasim seat of power, demolished in 1969 and rebuilt from original coral-and-gypsum blocks. Sixteen rooms cover the pearling economy, the prison tower and 1971 unification. Open 08:00–20:00, Fri 16:00–20:00.
Housed in the 1987 Souk Al Majarrah, its gold-leaf dome covers 5,000 artefacts: Abbasid astrolabes, a full kiswah panel from the Kaaba, and the Ibn Hawqal world map. Seven galleries run from the 7th century to Ottoman ceramics. Open 08:00–20:00.
Built over a 3rd-century BC pre-Islamic tomb 45 km inland, the centre documents Sharjah's Umm Al Nar burials, Iron Age falaj systems and coins struck by the Abiel dynasty. Excavations here pushed human occupation of the peninsula back 130,000 years.
Six halls of finds from Jebel Faya, Tell Abraq and Dibba: 125,000-year-old flint tools that rewrote the Out of Africa timeline, Bronze Age soft-stone vessels, and Sasanian glass traded through the Gulf.
The Gulf's first airport, opened 1932 as an Imperial Airways refuelling stop on the London–Karachi route. The original rest house, control room and four restored propeller aircraft — including a DC-3 — sit inside the fortified compound. Closed Mondays.
The 1845 courtyard house of pearl merchant Obaid bin Issa Al Naboodah, built from coral blocks and teak imported from India. Its two-storey wooden colonnade and wind tower show how a trading family lived before the oil era.
The only museum of its kind in the Arab world, in a restored Al Shuwaiheyeen house. Thuluth, Diwani and Kufic works by Ottoman and Iraqi masters hang alongside contemporary pieces from the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial, running since 1998.
Completed 2005 on Khalid Lagoon in Ottoman style, modelled on Istanbul's Sultan Ahmed Mosque with 34 domes and twin 52-metre minarets. It is the only Sharjah mosque open to non-Muslim visitors, via guided tours run by the Sharjah Centre for Cultural Communication.
The Gulf's largest heritage restoration, returning five walled quarters to their 1950s state by 2025. Coral-block alleys, barjeel wind towers and the old Bait Al Serkal — the 1930s British Agency and later the emirate's first hospital.
The UAE's oldest marketplace, trading since the 1820s when pearl divers and Bedouin bartered under its palm-frond roof. Restored coral-walled stalls still sell Omani silver, Bedouin jewellery and frankincense along the original covered lanes.
On Al Khan lagoon beside the emirate's last surviving fishing village, the museum holds full-size shashah reed boats, pearling dhows and the tools of the ghaus divers — nose clips, weighted stones and the tally system merchants used to price a haul.
Sharjah's original pearling settlement, abandoned in the 1970s and partly restored. Roofless coral houses and the Al Khan watchtower stand where 200 families once lived off diving seasons that ended when Japanese cultured pearls collapsed the market.