Today's Edition
RAJEEV CHERIAN (AL AIN)
A lush public garden home to major archaeological sites, Hili Archaeological Park in Al Ain offers an ideal setting for family outings and peaceful strolls in nature and serves as a treasure trove for history enthusiasts.
Located some 10km outside the lush oasis city of Al Ain, Hili Archaeological Park offers insights into Bronze Age (3000-1300 BCE) and Iron Age (1300-300 BCE) settlements, tombs and irrigation systems.
The site also reveals details about the earliest known evidence of an agricultural village in the UAE, dating to 3000 BCE, according to the Abu Dhabi Culture website.
Between 2500 and 2000 BCE - during the period known as “Umm an-Nar” era — settlements at Hili expanded.
The term “Umm an-Nar” also refers to an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi, where artefacts from this era were first discovered, shedding light on the culture and lifestyle of the UAE’s Bronze Age inhabitants.
Artefacts from the site revealed that the island’s inhabitants traded with the civilisations of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and the Indus Valley Civilisation (modern-day Pakistan and India), according to information on the Abu Dhabi Culture website.
A Burial Site
A major attraction at the site is the 4,000-year-old Hili Grand Tomb. Measuring 12 metres in diameter and originally thought to be four metres in height with a roof, the tomb was used to bury people from surrounding settlements.
The tomb features two entrances decorated with intricately engraved reliefs depicting human and animal figures. Similar tombs can be found in neighbouring areas, according to Abu Dhabi Culture.
‘Life After Death’
Adjacent to the Grand Tomb is the Hili 1 Settlement, once a tower made of mud bricks. The site was excavated in the 1960s by Danish archaeologists at the invitation of the UAE’s Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, according to Abu Dhabi Culture.
“This partially excavated settlement was inhabited by a community which believed in life after death as indicated by the number of stone monuments they built for their dead,” it said.
“The inhabitants lived in buildings constructed of sun-dried mud bricks. The most typical shape of the early Bronze Age dwellings is a round tower with a well usually located in the centre of the building.”
The round tower was surrounded by smaller buildings and a defensive ditch, according to information displayed at the site.
Another site at the centre of the park is Hili 10 Settlement.
“These are the remains of a single building which may have been the central part of a larger settlement. Only the foundations of the building remain, as the original floors and the upper wall have been eroded away by time,” reads the inscription at the park.
“The types of pottery discovered indicate that the building belonged to Bronze Age (3000-1300 BCE) and it was reoccupied during the Iron Age (1300-300 BCE).”
Global Heritage
The Hili area also features a falaj irrigation system, which carries water from the mountains to the farms via a complex system of underground and surface channels.
In 2011, Al Ain became the first in the UAE to be inscribed on UNESCO’s world heritage site list, featuring: the Bronze Age Hafeet Tombs, the archaeological settlements at Hili, the prehistoric settlements and burial mounds at Bidaa bint Saud, and the six lush oases of Al Ain, including Al Ain Oasis.
