Al Ain, on the Omani border · Abu Dhabi

Jebel Hafeet

The second-highest peak in the UAE, with an eleven-kilometre road of sixty bends climbing it that regularly appears on lists of the world's best drives. Free to go up, there is a viewing terrace and a café at the top, and the Bronze Age tombs at the foot are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A wide desert landscape with hills on the horizon

Why go

11 km, 60-bend mountain road, free to drive
Summit terrace and café at about 1,200 m
Bronze Age Hafit tombs on the lower slopes — UNESCO listed
Green Mubazzarah hot springs at the base

The road and the view

The road was cut in the 1980s and is beautifully engineered: three lanes, sixty corners, crash barriers throughout and lay-bys at the good viewpoints. It climbs about 1,200 metres in eleven kilometres. Cyclists use it as a training climb; cars use it to watch the sun go down over Al Ain on one side and Oman on the other.

The summit has a car park, a café and a terrace. Go up in the last hour of daylight, stay for the lights of Al Ain coming on, and come down in the dark — the road is lit.

The tombs at the bottom

Scattered across the lower slopes are around five hundred beehive-shaped stone tombs dating to roughly 3200–2700 BCE. They gave their name to the Hafit period of Gulf archaeology and are part of the Cultural Sites of Al Ain, inscribed by UNESCO in 2011 — the UAE's only World Heritage listing. Free to walk among.

Green Mubazzarah, the hot-spring park at the foot of the mountain, is on the same road and is where most people combine the two.

Jebel Hafeet, answered

Is Jebel Hafeet free?

Yes. The road, the summit viewpoints and the Bronze Age tombs at the base cost nothing. Only the café at the top and the paid areas of Green Mubazzarah charge.

How long does it take to drive up Jebel Hafeet?

About twenty minutes each way at a sensible pace. Add time for the lay-bys — the views on the way up are better than the one at the top.