Julfar

Once enjoying protected maritime access thanks to its lagoon, the waterway to Kush silted up leading to the establishment of Julfar on the coast.

Archaeological excavations recorded areesh structures built from palm fronds in the lowest levels, before mud brick and stone buildings appeared by the end of the 14th century.

The early population fished and likely pearled, but also farmed the interior, benefiting from the same access to land and sea that had characterised Julfar's predecessor, Kush.

[5] At this stage, Julfar was a well-defined urban settlement of some scale with a large mosque, a fort, a town wall and a dense network of streets packed with mudbrick, stone and coral houses.

[9] The 'Hormuzi boom' of the time followed the occupation of the island of Jarun in the Strait of Hormuz by Mahmud Qalhati and his people and its subsequent emergence as a global trading hub.

[11] Julfar was the birthplace of celebrated seafarer, navigator and cartographer Ahmad Ibn Majid, the 'Lion of the Sea', in 1432 - a time that corresponds with the town's emergence as a major maritime and mercantile hub.

[12] It is at this point that evidence emerges for a decline in Julfar's importance and population, leading to its abandonment in the late 16th century,[5] including a lack of pottery finds of Chinese blue and white porcelain that can be securely dated to a post-1575 period.

[13] It was to lead to the emergence of new powers in the Persian Gulf, not least of which would be the Qawasim of Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah, ranged against the English and their ally, the Sultan of Muscat.

The first excavations took place at Al Nudud in 1973/4 by an Iraqi team,[5] with a subsequent investigation carried out in 1977/8 by John Hansman, who published his discoveries in Julfar - An Arabian Port.

[5] These digs, organised by the Ras Al Khaimah Department of Antiquities and Museums, brought in teams from the UK, France, Germany and Japan.