Al Noor Island: Exotic jewel in Sharjah’s crown

Gulf News

Treasure trove caters to nature and art lovers, and promotes Sharjah's cultural image  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #travel #adventure #Sharjah

Transcript

00:00My name is Ahmed Ramzan and I'm a photojournalist at Gulf News.

00:13And today I have come at Al Noor Island in Sharjah, one of the places, one of the destinations

00:17where I always wanted to be.

00:19Today I'm here and let us explore the place together.

00:50The whole theme was built around the butterfly house and we have butterflies from different

00:56countries.

01:19Hi, my name is Ajmal Hassan.

01:28I take care of the operations on Al Noor Island and right now we're going through the western

01:34side of the island.

01:36This, as you can see, is what we call the maze.

01:39It's a maze which takes you around a circle and you have to find your way out.

01:43Do you want to come in?

01:51Now you have to find yourself out, Ahmed.

01:53I don't want to cheat.

01:54Really?

01:55This tree is the silt floss tree.

02:01It belongs to the Malvaceae family of trees and the speciality about this tree, as you

02:05can see, is its rather obese trunk, which really doesn't mean that the tree is fat.

02:11It just means that the tree has a lot of water stored inside its trunk.

02:15The central trunk is, as you can see, bulbous and holds a lot of water and the topmost area

02:22of the tree is where the leaves grow.

02:33This is actually a Southeast Asian species of plant called Pitithyllium dulci.

02:43We have them in India, Sri Lanka, but it's native to the Southeast Asian countries like

02:48the Philippines.

02:49So it's edible.

02:50It's called the Manila tamarind in English.

02:53And what was the scientific name?

02:55It's a tough one.

02:57It's Pitithyllium dulci.

03:01So edible.

03:02This thing is called Pitithyllium dulci.

03:09Good job.

03:10Although I believe even I'm saying it wrong because it's not a native species, it's an

03:14exotic species.

03:15But it is edible.

03:16But now this is completely dry, right?

03:21It's completely dry.

03:22Normally this is white, right?

03:23This is white or reddish, and it's an edible species that birds mostly enjoy, but humans

03:30also can eat it in times of need.

03:33If ever you have nothing to eat, you can visit the island and eat it.

03:36This of course is the national tree of the UAE, ghaf, ghafa, prosopis cineraria, or the

03:44ghaf tree, right?

03:45It's in seeding mode right now, so it's always nice to spread the seeds around and eventually

03:51more ghafs should arise.

03:53So you'll see a lot of these trees out here, and wherever there's a red board that says

03:58I was saved, means that this particular tree was already existing on the island prior to

04:02its development as Al Noor Island.

04:05So in 2015, when Al Noor Island was developed, already there were a lot of trees on this

04:10island.

04:11None of them were displaced or moved.

04:12We just built them into the landscape, or rather, you know, had them in the landscape

04:16by planting other trees around them, right?

04:18And of course, they're being taken care of right now.

04:22All right, Ahmed, let me show you these two interesting rock formations that we have on

04:27the island.

04:28So they've been specially imported from Brazil, and the whole reason why they've been placed

04:33here is strategic.

04:34They're supposed to promote positivity, good health, good spirits, etc., right?

04:40So they're kind of like the guardians of the island in many ways.

04:47So this is, you could call this our sunset point.

04:50It's also a platform overlooking the west, so the west is where the sun is.

04:53It's a great time for sunset very soon.

04:56Plus, it's a great location to see the different other attractions of Sharjah, such as the

05:02Sharjah Amphitheatre to our left.

05:05Further ahead, you have the large Flag Island, we have Al Muntaza Park out there, and different

05:11hotels and different buildings around the Gwahara Carnation.

05:14All right, so here we have what you can look and describe as a tree trunk, right?

05:28That looks like a tree trunk to you, but what if I told you that was stone, but not a tree

05:31anymore, right?

05:32It is stone now!

05:34It's a petrified tree, or a tree that has turned into, or the tree remains have been

05:40mineralized over millions of years, okay?

05:43Now, how many million?

05:44We're talking at least 35 to 36 million years old, all right?

05:47So this tree is older than anything else on this island, at least all the way until Malaya.

05:55So this is what they call the stone tree, or in literature it's called a petrified tree,

06:02which is basically nothing but a large tree trunk that has turned into stone because the

06:06tree trunk has been replaced by minerals and stony material, okay?

06:12This actually is from Indonesia.

06:14It weighs over 1.5 tons.

06:16This is lithium-ion stone, no?

06:20Yeah.

06:21Yeah.

06:22Interesting you try that with your mobile phone.

06:30All right, so some information about it here.

06:33Okay, we have the information.

06:35Two meters high.

06:36They also call it a fossil tree because it is fossilized, right?

06:39Okay.

06:40But it's not an animal fossil, it's a tree fossil.

07:10All right, Ahmed, this is another of the art installations here on the island.

07:22This is a piece by David Herber, a British artist, whereby, as you can see, this spherical

07:28sphere is actually not glass, it's stainless steel.

07:33It's been polished for many weeks to get a glass-like, mirror-like appearance, and the

07:39hole in between, which almost makes it look like a donut, is there for you to understand

07:43how nature mixes with its surroundings, especially this structure when viewed from the other

07:47side, this is the view you get, which you can see out here if you pan out, of the city

07:52amongst the foliage of trees.

07:54So the feeling of nature mixed with modernity is apparent in this art installation.

08:12This is the literature pavilion, which is built in honor of His Highness, Ruler of Sharjah,

08:16Sultan ibn Ahmad al-Qasimi, and as you can see, it has cushions, it has a place to sit

08:23down and relax, there's a fountain running out there, there's birds chirping in the background,

08:28and there's a feeling of being with, you know, yourself out here, and that's the main reason

08:36why this place has been called the Literature Pavilion.

08:39We expect people to come out here, take a book from the cafe or the Butterfly House,

08:43sit down here, relax in tranquil surroundings, read the book, learn more about the place

08:49or whatever you'd like to learn about from the different books.

09:19This area is called the Cactus Garden of Al Noor Island, and as you can see, there's

09:26a range of cactuses here, or cacti here, which are, which have been sourced from different

09:31parts of the world.

09:32The tall cactus that you see are called the Barrel Cactus, they're from Arizona in North

09:38America, and then you've got smaller Pillow Cactuses from other parts of the world as

09:42well.

09:43The whole idea about this place is to bring out the different species of plants that exist

09:50besides plants and trees.

10:13Overall, Al Noor Island is a place, a getaway from the city, the hustle bustle of the city,

10:23from the concrete jungle.

10:24It's a tropical jungle in the middle of the city where families can enjoy themselves,

10:28immerse themselves, rejuvenate from their daily activities of life and business and

10:35work.

10:43For more information visit www.fema.gov

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