[2] The highway starts near Al Maqta' Bridge in Abu Dhabi and becomes Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai.

The highway runs parallel to the coastline from the Trade Centre Roundabout to the border with the emirate of Abu Dhabi, 55 kilometres (34 mi) away in the area of Jebel Ali.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai at the time, named the road after the then president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

[4] The E11 is designated as such because "E" stands for Emirates, and the number system was adopted in 1995 to represent nationally and internationally significant high-speed roads within the UAE.

The E11 is part of this system, categorized as a primary road, with its numbering indicating a north-south orientation as per the guidelines detailed in the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport's document TR-538 from 2018.