Sir Bani Yas Island is a young island that was connected to the Abu Dhabi mainland some five to ten thousand years ago. However, the environment on Sir Bani Yas is not so young and the large salt dome hilltops located in the middle of the island were created up to 10 million years ago by natural geological forces.
Sir Bani Yas Island has a long and rich history of human settlement. The first humans are believed to have arrived on the island around six thousand years ago, long before people set foot on what was later to become the United Arab Emirates. The island is named after the Bani Yas tribe, one of the oldest and largest tribes on the Arabian Peninsula.
Thirty six archaeological sites have been discovered throughout Sir Bani Yas Island, each providing a distinct insight into the island’s history. One of the oldest sites is the remains of a pre-Islamic monastery which dates back to 600AD. This site has been carefully excavated by an expert team of archaeologists and is now open for viewing by guests.
The Island was first mentioned in European literature around 1590, when the Venetian jeweller Gasparo Balbi listed ‘Sirbeniast’ as an island around which pearls were often found. It was also described in some detail during the 1820s and 1850s by British naval officers who were surveying the lower Gulf waters.
The late ruler and founder of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan started his visionary ‘Greening of the Desert’ programme on Sir Bani Yas Island. His aim was to make the deserts more suitable for human settlement and provide a haven for Arabia’s endangered wildlife.
Under Sheikh Zayed’s patronage, several million trees were planted and numerous animal species introduced to the island, including gazelle, oryx and ostrich. He opened the reserve on the weekend to tourists and these tours became so popular that they would have to be booked over a year in advance.
Sheikh Zayed’s legacy is very much alive on Sir Bani Yas Island to this day. Successful breeding programmes have increased the populations of many of the endangered animals that were originally brought to the island, with some, including the Arabian Oryx, being nurtured back from the brink of extinction.