Ajman Museum

18th-century coral-block fort, now the emirate's history museum

Address Al Bustan, Ajman

The Ajman Museum is housed in a coral-block fort built around 1775 and used by the ruling Al Nuaimi family as palace, courthouse, police station and prison until 1978. The architecture alone — wind towers, gun-bastions, an inner courtyard with date palms — is worth the entrance fee.

The collections cover the usual UAE topics: pearl diving, Bedouin weapons, archaeological finds from the Mleiha and Umm an-Nar cultures, and a series of life-sized dioramas showing pre-oil trades. The reconstructed souq tableau in the back rooms is unusually well done. Allow around an hour. Closed Friday mornings.

things to do museum sight
A story
Until the late 1970s this building was simultaneously the emir's palace, the police headquarters, the customs office and the jail. The dungeon-like cells in the corner have been left as they were, complete with the shackles and the prisoner-graffiti scratched into the walls.