The Al Wathba Fossil Dunes, on Abu Dhabi’s desert edge, are sand that decided to stay put. Groundwater seeped through ancient dunes, left calcium carbonate behind and cemented them into curving ridges that specialists date to the last Ice Age, around 120,000 years ago.

More than 1,700 of them are scattered across seven square kilometres, in what is billed as the UAE’s first park of its kind. The Arabian Peninsula has spent stretches of the past million years underwater, so nearby rocks can hold fossilised shells, coral and sea urchins. Ghaf trees send roots up to 30 metres down for water, and the scorpions keep to the night shift.

VoiceMap’s 30-minute audio tour follows the park’s pathway to the amphitheatre, explaining how the dunes formed, why their sand shifts from white to deep red, and how conservation, long encouraged by Sheikh Zayed, protects them.