Jazirat al Hamra: the abandoned fishing village made of coral in the UAE

Last year on a trip to Dubai I spent a long weekend in Ras al Khaimah, the northernmost Emirate in the UAE. It's an odd city, with no obvious centre, near-empty highways broken up by beautifully embellished roundabouts and a plethora of unfinished developments.

The city has no oil, but it was once famous for pearling and fishing. On the shores of the Persian Gulf, near some of the newer developments shooting up around the state, is Jazirat al Hamra: a real-life ghost town. Once a thriving fishing and pearling village, it's now completely empty and crumbling, and locals believe it's haunted by djinn (spirits).

It makes for a freaky stroll, and I made it even freakier by visiting at sunrise. Here's a video I made about the city for my old employer, and here's the piece I wrote after visiting: