Red Island Ghost Town · The Fishing Village That Emptied Out

Al Hamra, the red island off Ras Al Khaimah, was once a village that lived by pearling. Its houses were built of coral stone and gypsum, and it had a mosque and a market.

In the mid-twentieth century the pearl trade collapsed and the whole village moved away one household at a time. Since then it has been an empty town, its buildings falling one by one into the sand.

The local account is this: the people here are gone, but at night the upper windows still light up, and when the wind is strong the sound of the market can be heard.

Haunted Ruins / Ras Al Khaimah · United Arab Emirates / 1830