The United Arab Emerites, or UAE, is a country made from a coalition of seven emirates each governed by a different sheik.  The capital and by far the largest emirate is Abu Dhabi. The second largest and best known emirate is Dubai.  On Wednesday we visited the Sharjah Emirate.  It is more conservative than Dubai and Abu Dhabi as no alcohol is permitted and more of the population wears traditional clothing.

On the drive into the heart of Sharjah, we passed a traffic circle with a collection of prominent buildings. The statue in the center picture is the Koran. 

Our main destination for the day was the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization.  

The entrance in the bottom picture and detail of the windows on the bottom floor in the top picture.

One of the museum highlights is the interior tile work of the center dome.  It is a creation of the night sky with particular attention to the signs of the zodiac. 

The museum was huge with two levels of  exhibit rooms on both sides of this hall.  There is an equally long hall stretching behind me on the other side of the dome.

Detail of the door at the end of the hall.

A sampling of the museum exhibits.

The museum is on another man made creek which is an extension of the ocean.

Sharjah did not lack for tall buildings with distinctive architecture.

We made a shopping stop at the Blue Souk.  From the top picture you can see it is two long buildings joined by a covered bridge between them. There were an abundance of gold and rug shops.  Susan enjoyed using her negotiating skills at the tourist stores.

We had lunch at a five star hotel created from free standing buildings in the old town.  It was a delicious served lunch featuring Mediterranean cuisine.

On our drive back to our hotel in Dubai, we got many views of the Burj Kahlifa, the tallest building and the tallest man made structure in the world. That was our destination for tonight.