Wadi Wurayah
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How it came to be
Wadi Wurayah is a valley in the Hajar Mountains in the Emirate of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. The range exposes extensive, well-preserved ophiolite sequences formed by tectonic processes in the Late Cretaceous. The valley takes its name from warrah, a tall marsh plant that grows in its wetlands.
Baseline studies began in 2006 and recorded 860 species. On 16 March 2009, after a three-year campaign by the Emirates Wildlife Society with the World Wide Fund for Nature, Wadi Wurayah became the first protected mountain area in the country. It was closed to tourists in 2013 so the ecosystem could recover, and in January 2026 it reopened for booked, controlled group visits.
Today 1,099 species are recorded, 883 animals and 216 plants, at least ten of them globally threatened. They include about half of the country's terrestrial mammal species and nearly half of its terrestrial reptile species. In July 2026 the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee, meeting in Busan, South Korea, inscribed it as the first natural World Heritage site in the United Arab Emirates.
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