Once I finally met people who were able to guide me as to good places to go, I learned about the House of Wisdom. It's a very new library near the airport in Sharjah, which has also been recently designated some kind of UNESCO book city.
The pics of the iconic sculpture based on Arabic script is on my camera so I don't have those to show right now (being lazy about downloading them), but it's a huge lovely site.
Inside I first looked at the exhibit of books and so on from a collection acquired by the library or emir or what have you (I'm sorry that I've been too exhausted to keep detailed notes). In the middle is a courtyard open to the sky.
It sounded like pigeons were gearing up for a fight or activity or something so I moved along after a bit.
A lot of it reminded me of the big library in Amsterdam. Including lots of people there to study, read, etc.
Exhibit space on the upper floor, this one about NFT art.
There are people laying in the circles. In the ladies only section that is more private there are pods that look like bunk beds built into the wall.
The big art books are all on the other side of the café and facing the children's section, which is lovely but I didn't photograph since there were children playing.
Bamboo shades for the windows.
More pods for private study
Wisdom Vault!
Part of the exhibit. I loved these big books with rugs drawn and partly colored. I so wanted to be here all the time to read and read and read.
I had been invited to attend the opening of the heritage days in Al Dhaid, which used to be an oasis area in the eastern part of Sharjah. This is a fort that was restored and everything happened around this area. I had no idea they did this festival is MORE than one location.
For this mini version, instead of the emir attending, the chairman of the heritage institute did the sweeping walkabout.
After watching people flock to him and waving, I wandered off to see what else was around. I went to the market area that wasn't yet crowded.
Yes, that's a falcon with its eyes covered on the left. That made me sad but I don't know enough about falconry to know about animal care.
On that side, I saw men working with date palm fibers.
The first makes the twists on top of his shin
while the second plies them together to make rope. A guy sitting nearby said only men did this work. Can that be true? Hm.
These baskets are all woven from date palm leaves.
And inside the fort is a recreation of the way they had bags of dates piled on top of each other. The weight of them causes the bottom ones to ooze date syrup into the grooves built to empty into a container.
Inside of the fort, plus lights from the town
View from the upper level of the fort
And the requisite camel. I saw kids riding one in the parking lot on the other side. It took a while to get the bus situation sorted out to return to the other festival in the Heart of Sharjah. I could probably have just gone back to the hotel but thought I should check in even if there was only an hour left. Turns out they needed another interview, and I've lost track of how many I've done so far. I haven't watched the video but you are welcome to see that I am now an actress, according to
this write-up.
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