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The Jebel Jais mountain peak is part of the spectacular cloud-piercing Hajar mountain range. The range extends from Ras Al Khaimah on the eastern side of the United Arab Emirates to the Musandam Peninsula on the northeastern side of Oman.

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JEBEL JAIS ADVENTURE AWAITS - The dramatic Jebel Jais mountainscapes are home to life-changing, adrenaline-pumping, awe-inspiring and cloud-piercing adventures and experiences. Are you brave enough?

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Jebel Jais ( Arabic: جَبَل جَيْس‎, Jabal Jays) is a mountain of the North- Western Hajar range in the Musandam Governorate of Oman and also in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. The summit has an elevation of 1,934 m (6,345 ft). The summit is located on the Omani side, but a high point west of this peak is considered the highest point in the United Arab Emirates, at 1,892 m (6,207 ft) above sea level, and with around 10m of prominence. Since the summit is on the Omani side, Jebel Al Mebrah (also known as "Jabal Yibir"), at 1,727 m (5,666 ft), is the highest peak in the UAE, with significant prominence.

On the Omani side, the mountain is largely undeveloped, inaccessible, and far from any development, however on the United Arab Emirates side there has been a lot of development in recent years. A 20 km (12 mi) road has been built, which hairpins most of the way up the mountain on the United Arab Emirates side. Near the top of the road, there are parking places, food providers, toilets and a viewing platform. After a security checkpoint, the road continues up a few kilometers further to the world's longest zip-line and an Etisalat cell tower, as well as a large flat area used for outdoor shows and parking. New buildings are also being built along this road section, for use of the zip-line operating company. This section was completed towards the end of 2017; however it remains closed to the public, by motorized vehicles, as of December 2019.[citation needed ] A private brick road then continues further up, to Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi's palace, which is situated near the UAE's highest point. The summit is then accessible by hiking, a short distance after the palace perimeter fence.

The road is due to be completed by September 2019.

Jebel Jais ZipLine

The world's longest zip line opened on the mountain in February 2018. It is 2,832 m (9,291 ft) long, and users travel at speeds of up to 150 km/h (93 mph), There are, or have been, plans in place to build a hotel, cable car, paragliding launch ramp, golf course and ski slope following the opening of the road.

The temperature of Ras Al Khaimah tends to be lower than other parts of the country. Temperatures as low as -5 degrees Celsius have been measured at the top of the mountain in winter. The temperatures at the highest elevations on the mountain tend to be lower than other parts of United Arab Emirates, by about ten degrees, except for spots such as the mountains of Hafeet, Yibir, Yanas and Al-Heben.

In January 2009 there was snow on Jebel Jais. This was only the second time snow had been reported in the history of United Arab Emirates, previously having only been seen in 2004. There was less on this occasion. In February 2017 it snowed again on Jebel Jais and the temperatures fell down-to -5 degrees Celsius. In January 2020 a mix of snow and hail covered the mountain with the temperature dropping below zero degrees.

View from the Jabal Jais Road

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Jebel Jais ( Arabic: جَبَل جَيْس‎, Jabal Jays) is a mountain of the North- Western Hajar range in the Musandam Governorate of Oman and also in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. The summit has an elevation of 1,934 m (6,345 ft).

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Rub al Khali: the sand desert of the UAE - Exploring the United Arab Emirates

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Exploring the United Arab Emirates is the reference site for planning a trip to the United Arab Emirates, with information, tips and advice, a real touristic guide. Special features: culture, society, history, transports, accomodation. Must see's and must do's: the sand desert, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the Northern Emirates and the Musandam Peninsula.

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The Arabian Gulf is an enclosed sea and is among the most challenging marine environment for marine life, yet it hosts an incredible variety of creatures and different marine habitats.

It is a fairly "new" sea, as it was completely dried out until the end of the Last Glacial Maximum about 10,000 years ago, when the sea level rose and the Indian Ocean flooded through the narrow Straits of Hormuz into the once plains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Teller et al., 2000). All the marine species present in the Gulf today migrated from the Indian Ocean, once the new marine environment was settled.

Today it is a shallow basin with an average depth of 35 metres to a maximum depth of 90 metres. Water temperatures and salinity show high seasonal fluctuation, making the Gulf a unique environment that requires extreme adaptation from all the resident marine life. The water temperature during summer (May to October) can reach up to 35 oC, and over winter (September to April) can drop to as low as 15 o C. Salinity is between 40-50 ppm, this is exceptionally high if compared to the average ocean salinity of 34.7 ppm.

The Gulf offers a variety of different marine environments from vast intertidal and sub-tidal shallow areas, mangrove forests, coral reefs, sea grass beds and pelagic habitats.
Intertidal and sub-tidal shallow areas
Due to the gradual slope that characterises most of the Gulf and the range of tides, the intertidal or littoral zones represent an important part of the local marine environment. This habitat is still one of the most vulnerable because human interaction and climate change. Naturally they are subjected to the highest shift in environmental conditions between summer and winter. Most of the littoral areas are sandy but you can also find lagoons, rocky platforms and pools, and muddy areas. These areas are, generally of strategic importance for many marine species and birds that shelter during breeding season.
Mangrove forests:
Mangroves are extremely important for the marine biodiversity. Not only as they act as the best antidote for coastline erosion, but they also represent an unique ecosystem that provide suitable habitat and safe breeding grounds for many fish species, such as snapper, grunt fish, sea bream, shrimps and crabs. It is also an important habitat for many species of birds and marine turtles. In UAE mangroves are a significant part of the local marine environment and can be found on both the east and west coast of the country, although the majority is located in Abu Dhabi. Main threats for the mangroves are pollution, coastal development, sedimentation, change in tidal flow and human related activities.
Coral Reefs:
Despite the general misconception that corals are plants, as they do not move, they are actually animals, organised in colonies of polyps that in the early stage of their life actually move across oceans. Coral reefs play a crucial role in maintaining the marine biodiversity, hosting a wide variety of small and big marine organisms, from tiny molluscs to reef sharks. Although the Gulf waters represent an extreme environment for the corals survival, due to the extreme salinity and temperature range and the level of suspended sediments, a wide variety of soft and hard corals can be found. Today corals worldwide are facing serious threats from climate change, human related activities and pollution.
Sea Grass Beds:
Sea grass are mainly submerged flowering vascular plants that prefer soft bottom sediment in shallow areas. The Gulf provides an ideal habitat for sea grass although the extreme shifts in water temperature and salinity represents a challenge for its survival. Out of 50 species of sea grass worldwide, in the Gulf only three are represented and they are considered among the most tolerant to environmental shifts. The sea grass areas play an important role in the marine ecosystem, providing habitat stabilization, nutrient recycling, and shelter form marine species. In the UAE sea grass beds are the favourite habitat for dugong, a large marine mammal, and green turtles, as the both feed on it.
Pelagic areas:
As the Gulf is a shallow body of water with a maximum depth of 90 meters, most of the pelagic areas are considered epipelagic, as the depth still allows enough light for the photosyntesis. There is not much data on the pelagic areas of the Gulf but reports of large fish and sharks such as sunfish, tuna, kingfish, whale shark and bull shark are common. Several cetacean species have also been reported such as Bryde's and humpback whales, bottlenose, common and spinner dolphins, false killer whale and killer whales. Research is currently being conducted on whale sharks in the Gulf.

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The Arabian Gulf is an enclosed sea and is among the most challenging marine environment for marine life, yet it hosts an incredible variety of creatures and different marine habitats.

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Al Shindagah magazine is a bi-monthly magazine published in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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A look at marine animals in the UAE: sea turtles

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In a five-part poster series launching this week, Oasis takes a closer look at a different marine animal, starting with sea turtles.

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Location | Weather | Plants | Animals | People | Links

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This lists the logos of programs or partners of NG Education which have provided or contributed the content on this page. Powered by

Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary

If you've ever been to the beach, you've been on a coast. The coast is the land along a sea. The boundary of a coast, where land meets water, is called the coastline.

Waves, tides, and currents help create coastlines. When waves crash onto shore, they wear away at, or erode, the land. But they also leave behind little parts of the sea, such as shells, sand dollars, seaweeds, and hermit crabs. Sometimes these objects end up as more permanent parts of the coastline.

Coastal changes can take hundreds of years. The way coasts are formed depends a lot on what kind of material is in the land and water. The harder the material in the land, the harder it is to erode. Coastlines of granite, a hard rock, stay pretty stable for centuries. Sugarloaf Mountain, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is made mostly of granite and quartz. It has been a landmark for centuries.

The famous White Cliffs of Dover, in England, are made of calcium carbonate. This is a soft material and erodes easily. However, it exists in such great quantities that years of erosion have not made a visible impact on the coastline. The White Cliffs are a landmark of the English coast of the English Channel. (The other coast is French.)

The sandy coastlines of islands, on the other hand, change almost daily. The island of Mont Saint Michel is only an island when the tide is in. It is part of the coast of France during low tide. Islands are also the site of Earth's newest coastlines, like a Tongan island created in March 2009 by the eruption of the volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai. The "Big Island" of Hawaii, created by five volcanoes, sometimes expands its coastline when one of its active volcanoes, Mauna Loa or Kilauea, erupts. If lava flows reach the ocean, the lava cools and forms new coastline along the Pacific Ocean.

Tides, the rise and fall of the ocean, affect where sediment and other objects are deposited on the coast. The water slowly rises up over the shore and then slowly falls back again, leaving material behind. In places with a large tidal range (the area between high tide and low tide,) waves deposit material such as shells and hermit crabs farther inland. Areas with a low tidal range have smaller waves that leave material closer to shore.

Waves that are really big carry a lot of energy. The larger the wave, the more energy it has, and the more sediment, or particles of rock, it will move. Coastlines with big beaches have more room for waves to spread their energy and deposits. Coastlines with small, narrow beaches have less room for waves to spread out. All the waves' energy is focused in a small place. This gives the small beaches a tattered, weathered look. Sandy beaches are washed away, and rocky coastlines are sometimes cracked by strong waves.

Because coasts are dynamic, or constantly changing, they are important ecosystems. They provide unique homes for marine plants, animals, and insects. Coasts can be icy, like the Shackleton Coast of Antarctica, or desert, like the Skeleton Coast of Namibia.

Coasts help us understand natural events, such as weather and changing sea levels. During storms, coasts are the first places to be flooded. Some coasts have coastal plains. Coastal plains are pieces of flat, low-lying land that can become visible when sea levels start decreasing.

Coasts, as beautiful as they tend to be, have it rough sometimes. They are affected by pollution, oil spills, and garbage from both land and sea. Pollution negatively affects the way a coast looks and is damaging to the marine life that lives there.

People visit the coast on vacation to participate in activities like fishing, boating, and swimming.

In the United States, coasts can be a reference to culture as much as physical geography. For example, West Coast people in California identify with a different type of culture, or way of life, than East Coast residents in New York City or Washington, D.C. The southern Gulf Coast of New Orleans, Louisiana, has yet a different cultural association.

This cultural connection to the coast shows up in many different ways, including food and leisure activities. Residents of the Gulf Coast, for instance, are more familiar with food made from shrimp, a seafood native to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Maine, on the northern East Coast, is famous for its lobster.

Credits

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Writers

Kim Rutledge
Tara Ramroop
Diane Boudreau
Melissa McDaniel
Santani Teng
Erin Sprout
Hilary Costa
Hilary Hall
Jeff Hunt

Illustrators

Mary Crooks, National Geographic Society
Tim Gunther

Editors

Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing
Kara West

Educator Reviewer

Nancy Wynne

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Sources

Dunn, Margery G. (Editor). (1989, 1993). "Exploring Your World: The Adventure of Geography." Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Last Updated

Jan. 21, 2011

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Nancy Wynne

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This lists the logos of programs or partners of NG Education which have provided or contributed the content on this page. Powered by Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary If you've ever been to the beach, you've been on a coast. The coast is the land along a sea.

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They define landscapes, people risk their lives to climb them, and they can even make their own weather.

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Far from being barren wastelands, deserts are biologically rich habitats with a vast array of animals and plants that have adapted to the harsh conditions there. Some deserts are among the planet's last remaining areas of total wilderness. Yet more than one billion people, one-sixth of the Earth's population, actually live in desert regions.

Deserts cover more than one-fifth of the Earth's land area, and they are found on every continent. A place that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year is considered a desert. Deserts are part of a wider class of regions called drylands. These areas exist under a "moisture deficit," which means they can frequently lose more moisture through evaporation than they receive from annual precipitation.

Despite the common conceptions of deserts as hot, there are cold deserts as well. The largest hot desert in the world, northern Africa's Sahara, reaches temperatures of up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) during the day. But some deserts are always cold, like the Gobi desert in Asia and the polar deserts of the Antarctic and Arctic, which are the world's largest. Others are mountainous. Only about 20 percent of deserts are covered by sand.

The driest deserts, such as Chile's Atacama Desert, have parts that receive less than .08 inches (2 mm) of precipitation a year. Such environments are so harsh and otherworldly that scientists have even studied them for clues about life on Mars. On the other hand, every few years, an unusually rainy period can produce "super blooms," where even the Atacama becomes blanketed in wildflowers.

Desert animals and plants

Desert animals have evolved ways to help them keep cool and use less water. Camels can go for weeks without water, and their nostrils and eyelashes can form a barrier against sand. Many desert animals, such as the fennec fox, are nocturnal, coming out to hunt only when the brutal sun has descended. Some animals, like the desert tortoise in the southwestern United States, spend much of their time underground. Most desert birds are nomadic, crisscrossing the skies in search of food. And among insects, the Namibian desert beetle can harvest fog from the air for water. Because of their very special adaptations, desert animals are extremely vulnerable to changes in their habitat.

Desert plants may have to go without fresh water for years at a time. Some plants have adapted to the arid climate by growing long roots that tap water from deep underground. Other plants, such as cacti, have special means of storing and conserving water.

Deserts, land use, and climate change

Some of the world's semi-arid regions are turning into desert at an alarming rate. This process, known as desertification, is not caused by drought, but usually arises from deforestation and the demands of human populations that settle on the semi-arid lands. The pounding of the soil by the hooves of livestock in ranching, for example, may degrade the soil and encourage erosion by wind and water. In northern China, growing urbanization, which left much of the land unprotected against wind erosion and the buildup of sediment from the surrounding desert, created a desertification problem, prompting the government to build a " great green wall" as a hedge against encroaching desert.

In existing deserts, some species are in peril because of climate change. Global warming threatens to change the ecology of deserts: Higher temperatures may produce more wildfires that alter desert landscapes by eliminating slow-growing trees and shrubs and replacing them with fast-growing grasses.

Many desert plants can live for hundreds of years. But in California, the iconic Joshua tree-the oldest found was 1,000 years old- may not survive a hotter climate, scientists warn. If they don't survive, that could affect species such as the yucca moth, which lays its eggs inside the Joshua tree flower.

Desert bird species could also be in danger from climate change, as heat waves lead to lethal dehydration.

Paradoxically, the effort to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by expanding solar energy has also created some tensions for desert habitats. In the Mojave, the 2013 arrival of the Ivanpah solar thermal plant created concerns about how the facility would affect threatened desert tortoises, and conservationists are working to ensure solar energy projects like these can coexist with wildlife.

Other land use changes also threaten to degrade desert habitats. The downsizing of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument poses a threat to some of the 660 bee species that live in the area, while the prospect of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico could disconnect a third of 346 native wildlife species from 50 percent or more of their range that lies south of the border, including the desert bighorn sheep.

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Far from being barren wastelands, deserts are biologically rich habitats with a vast array of animals and plants that have adapted to the harsh conditions there. Some deserts are among the planet's last remaining areas of total wilderness. Yet more than one billion people, one-sixth of the Earth's population, actually live in desert regions.

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A typical oasis in a desert.

What Is An Oasis?

An oasis is an unexpected water source located in the desert. This water provides the much-needed relief in the middle of the desert and allows for the growth of vegetation. This isolated vegetation is often how an oasis is identified. Animals often find shelter in an oasis as well, feeding on the surrounding plants and drinking the water supply. If the oasis is large enough, human settlements may also crop up nearby.

Around the world, the Sahara Desert is home to some of the largest underground water supplies. Estimates suggest there are as many as 90 oases located there. However, the Sahara is so large that traveling between oases sites can often take days, or even weeks. Historically, this has caused oases to become important stops along trade and transportation routes. Oases provide a place to fill up on food and water supplies. Because of this importance, many political, economic, and military forces have tried to control the flow of goods and people into and out of oases. This control gives these groups power over the trade that comes into the area.

How Is An Oasis Formed?

Oases are created when underground aquifers or rivers reach the surface of land. This can occur by natural pressure or by man-made wells. Scientists have also identified some thunderstorms as both the cause and source of some oases. Thunderstorms brings heavy rain water that becomes trapped in the air pockets of a layer of impermeable rock, or the water collects in volcanic and subsurface faults and dikes.

How do plants begin growing in the middle of the desert? This is where migratory birds play a critical role. Migrating birds are attracted to the water source as they make their way across the desert. While gathered at the site, the birds excrete seeds that they have consumed along the migration route. The stable water source allows these seeds to germinate, take root, and grow. Over time, these plants produce more seeds and the vegetation continues to multiply - within the confines of the water source.

Humans And Oases

Because oases provide a fertile area in the middle of an otherwise infertile ground, humans have been attracted to these sites for hundreds of years. Once a settlement springs up at an oasis site, the people living there must carefully control water use. This is usually done via wells and irrigation systems. By irrigating the land, inhabitants are able to produce and harvest several crops, including cotton, olives, figs, dates, corn, wheat, citrus fruit, and apricots. Where agriculture is concerned, date palm trees are particularly helpful. This is because the date palms grow higher than other plants, forming an upper layer that provides shade for the plants below. This shade keeps the sun from burning other crop plants and helps prevent the scarce water from evaporating quickly.

Environmental Threats To Oases

One of the biggest threats to the oasis environment is actually its location. Desert sands blowing into the oasis water supply both pollutes the available water and fills the source. Too much sand around the crops can also reduce necessary nutrients in the soil, thereby reducing the harvest. Additionally, overuse of water for irrigation purposes threatens the supply by reducing the water available for other uses. Date palm trees, previously mentioned, also help to prevent sand pollution. The community often plants these trees around the outer edges of the oasis to block the strong, sand-carrying winds.

1. Home

2. Environment

3. What Is An Oasis?

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An oasis is an unexpected water source located in the desert. This water provides the much-needed relief in the middle of the desert and allows for the growth of vegetation. This isolated vegetation is often how an oasis is identified. Animals often find shelter in an oasis as well, feeding on the surrounding plants and drinking the water supply.

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This lists the logos of programs or partners of NG Education which have provided or contributed the content on this page. Powered by

Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary

An oasis is an area made fertile by a source of freshwater in an otherwise dry and arid region. Oases (more than one oasis) are irrigated by natural springs or other underground water sources. They vary in size from a cluster of date palms around a well or a spring to a city and its irrigated cropland. Dates, cotton, olives, figs, citrus fruits, wheat and corn ( maize) are common oasis crops.

Underground water sources called aquifers supply most oases. In some cases, a natural spring brings the underground water to the surface. At other oases, manmade wells tap the aquifer. In some oasis settlements, these wells might be centuries old and might have been diligently maintained for generations to preserve access to their life-giving water.

Sands blown by desert winds threaten wells as well as agricultural areas in oases. Sand can destroy crops and pollute water. Communities have traditionally planted strong trees, such as palms, around the perimeter of oases to keep the desert sands from their delicate crops and water.

Some of the world's largest supplies of underground water exist beneath the Sahara Desert, supporting about 90 major oases there. The Sahara is the largest desert on Earth-about the size of the continental United States. Though there are many oases there, traveling between them can take days because the desert is so vast.

For this reason, oases in the Sahara and throughout the world have become important stops along trade routes. Merchants and traders who travel along these routes must stop at oases to replenish food and water supplies. This means that whoever controls an oasis also controls the trade along the route-making oases desirable to political, economic, and military leaders.

Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia, has been an important farming area for the Arabian Peninsula for thousands of years. Today, it continues to be a leading agricultural region, producing dates, rice, corn, sheep, cattle, and eggs. The al-Hasa region also lies above one of the richest oil fields in the world, making the oasis an important center of international trade.

Rivers that flow through some deserts provide permanent sources of water for large, elongated oases. The fertile Nile River valley and delta in Egypt, supplied with water from the Nile River, is an example of this type of large oasis. At 22,000 square kilometers, it might be the largest oasis in the world.

Credits

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Writers

Kim Rutledge
Tara Ramroop
Diane Boudreau
Melissa McDaniel
Santani Teng
Erin Sprout
Hilary Costa
Hilary Hall
Jeff Hunt

Illustrators

Mary Crooks, National Geographic Society
Tim Gunther

Editors

Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing
Kara West

Educator Reviewer

Nancy Wynne

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Sources

Dunn, Margery G. (Editor). (1989, 1993). "Exploring Your World: The Adventure of Geography." Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Last Updated

June 10, 2011

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

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If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

Nancy Wynne

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This lists the logos of programs or partners of NG Education which have provided or contributed the content on this page. Powered by Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary An oasis is an area made fertile by a source of freshwater in an otherwise dry and arid region.

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com