Situated east of Al Ain Oasis, in the historic district once known as Harat Al Hosn, the museum is the UAE’s first purpose-built museum and one of its most significant cultural institutions.

Visitors will encounter stories that span from the Palaeolithic era to the 20th century, offering a window into the region’s long-standing traditions of innovation, community, and cultural exchange.

Al Ain Museum offers a rare and compelling blend of structures from different periods:

• Beneath the galleries lie in situ archaeological remains, uncovered and preserved exactly where they were found.
• At its heart is Sultan Fort, a historic early 20th-century building.
• Next to it is the 1970s museum building, now considered a piece of modern heritage.
• And complementing it all are new gallery spaces built to deliver an immersive and accessible visitor experience.

Together, these layers reflect the UAE’s evolving story — one told through architecture as much as through artefacts.

The museum has undergone a major transformation. Its original 1970s structure has been carefully restored, Sultan Fort revitalised, and four new exhibition galleries constructed. Three of these are built around in situ archaeological remains, dating from the Iron Age to the Late Pre-Islamic period.

This renewal brings together traditional and contemporary approaches to storytelling, allowing visitors to experience history in the very place it was lived.

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