Ras Al Khaimah

Julfar traded across the Gulf for a thousand years before Dubai was a name worth writing down, and what remains of it lies in the sand north of the modern town. Jebel Jais rises to 1,934 metres behind it, the highest ground in the country, and carries a zip line of nearly three kilometres — the answer of an emirate with neither the oil nor the towers to compete on the usual terms.