Jazirat Al Hamra

Jazirat Al Hamra – “the Red Island,” after the colour of its sands – was founded in the late 16th century on a tidal island off the coast of what is now Ras Al Khaimah, the northernmost of the United Arab Emirates. Its people, mostly of the Za’ab tribe, lived from pearl diving, fishing, boat-building and trade. By the early 20th century the town had around 500 houses and up to 3,000 residents, with coral-stone courtyard houses, a fort and watchtowers, mosques and a souq. Its sheikh was one of the signatories of the 1820 treaty between the Gulf rulers and Britain.

The pearling crash of the late 1920s and the arrival of oil wealth changed everything. After a dispute with the ruler of Ras Al Khaimah in 1968, most of the Za’ab accepted an offer from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to resettle in Abu Dhabi, and the town was left almost empty. While other old Gulf towns were rebuilt, Jazirat Al Hamra stood frozen, its houses slowly crumbling; some were used as labourers’ lodgings, others were damaged by vandals and treasure hunters, and the lagoon around it was filled in during the late 1970s.

An empty town in the desert soon gathered stories. In Gulf folklore and Islamic belief, djinn – beings created from smokeless fire, distinct from human ghosts – are said to favour ruins and abandoned places, and locals and visitors began to speak of djinn living in the deserted houses. Gulf News described it in 2015 as one of the UAE’s most “haunted” places; Arab filmmakers and documentary crews in search of djinn shot there, and Tobe Hooper’s 2013 horror film Djinn introduced it to English-speaking audiences.

The former residents see it differently. Since 2012 families have returned each year for a reunion festival, and the town has been conserved as the Al Jazeera Al Hamra Heritage Village. In 2020 the UAE added “the pearl trading town of Jazirat Al-Hamra” to its UNESCO World Heritage tentative list. For the Za’ab descendants it is a home and a heritage, not a haunted ruin – and djinn belief is part of a living religious tradition that deserves respect.

Visitors and local storytellers speak of djinn heard or felt in the empty houses: voices and footsteps in deserted alleys, shapes in doorways at dusk, animals that appear and vanish, and a feeling of being watched. The stories are told mostly at night and are anecdotal.

The abandoned coral-stone houses and narrow lanes of the old town, especially the less-restored areas, after dark.

Jazirat Al Hamra is the setting of Tobe Hooper’s Djinn (2013) and has served as a backdrop for Gulf love stories, hip-hop videos and documentaries about djinn. Today the conserved heritage village hosts reunion festivals and cultural events.