Geography

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) comprises seven members: Abu Dhabi (the capital city), Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Q’wain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.

The UAE covers an estimated total area of 83,600 km² (excluding the three islands in the Strait of Hormuz, the area is about 77,700 km²) and has 1,318 km of coastline along the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Along the Arabian Gulf coast there are several offshore islands, coral reefs and sabkha, or salt marshes. Stretches of gravel plain and sandy desert characterise the inland region.
To the east, a range of mountains lies close to the Gulf of Oman and forms a backbone through the Musandam Peninsula. The western interior of the country, most of it in Abu Dhabi, consists mainly of desert interspersed with oases.

Dubai, with an area of 3,890 km², is the second largest emirate. It is situated on the banks of the Dubai Creek (a natural inlet from the Gulf) which divides the city into the Deira district to its north, and Bur Dubai on its south. Dubai has two large container ports and sophisticated air, road and communications links.

Dubai’s large port terminals (Port Jebel Ali and Port Rashid) form the Dubai Port Authority. Port Jebel Ali is the largest man-made harbour in the world, the biggest port in the Middle East and the 6th largest seaport in the world. Both ports combined have handled around 12 million TEU’s (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) in 2008 (which represents an 11% increase in throughput over 2007) and serve more than 100 shipping lines. The strong shipping and transportation sector is composed of most of the leading regional and international freight forwarders, insurers and shipping agents.

  Click here for a map of the UAE