Asia Occidental
Glittering · Desert · Futuristic
Dubai's Burj Khalifa at 828 m is the world's tallest building, and the UAE is the only country where the sun's reflection off the building can be seen from neighbouring countries — it contains a vertical distance equivalent to twice the Empire State Building.
Más allá de la capital, las principales ciudades son Dubai, Sharjah, Al Ain — cada una un centro de cultura regional, economía e historia. Abu Dhabi houses the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque — 82 domes, 1,000 columns, and a floor of white marble inlaid with semiprecious stones — in a capital whose ADNOC building, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and Guggenheim (under construction) represent a deliberate investment in cultural capital by a petrostate using art institutions to build international identity beyond oil revenues.
El idioma oficial es árabe, que refleja el patrimonio cultural del país y lo conecta con una amplia comunidad internacional. Internacionalmente, los Emiratos Árabes Unidos se contactan mediante el código +971. Emiratis constitute only 11% of the UAE's population of 9.9 million — the remaining 89% being Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, and European migrants working in a kafala system whose labour protections have been significantly reformed in 2021 but which still ties workers to employers in ways that limit mobility — creating a society of extraordinary ethnic diversity where political rights are distributed along citizenship lines.
Los Emiratos Árabes Unidos comparten sus fronteras con Arabia Saudí, Omán. El tráfico rodado circula por la derecha, en consonancia con la convención de
La vida económica y cotidiana se rige por la zona horaria de UTC+04:00, alineando el país con sus vecinos regionales.
Al harees — wheat and meat slow-cooked overnight until they blend into a single smooth paste, served at Eid and weddings — is the UAE's most traditional dish, its simplicity reflecting the desert Bedouin tradition where available ingredients (flour, water, meat) were cooked slowly in the embers of a dying fire to produce a nutritious, non-perishable meal for long desert journeys.
Camel racing with robot jockeys (replacing the child jockeys banned in 2005 after international human rights pressure) and falconry are the UAE's most culturally embedded sports, while Formula One's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit hosts the championship's final race and golf attracts the world's best players to tournaments in a desert city that has built more championship courses than some European countries.
The Hajar Mountains in the UAE's east rise to over 1,900 metres in a rugged limestone range where wadis (seasonal rivers) fill suddenly during winter rains and the village of Hatta maintains a culture distinct from the coastal cities — a mountain landscape that provides the UAE's rare ecological diversity beyond the desert and coastal environments that define most of the country's geography.