Al Noor Island: Exotic jewel in Sharjah’s crown
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00:00My name is Ahmed Ramzan and I'm a photojournalist at Gulf News.
00:13And today I have come to Al Noor Island in Sharjah, one of the places, one of the destinations
00:17where I always wanted to be.
00:19So today I'm here and let us explore the place together.
00:49The whole theme was built around the butterfly house and we have butterflies from different
01:00countries.
01:26Hi, my name is Ajmal Hassan.
01:28I take care of the operations on Al Noor Island and right now we're going through the
01:34western side of the island.
01:36This, as you can see, is what we call the maze.
01:39It's a maze which takes you around a circle and you have to find your way out.
01:43Want to come in?
01:51Now you have to find yourself out, Ahmed.
01:53I don't want to cheat.
01:54Really?
01:58This tree is the silt floss tree.
02:01It belongs to the Malvasia family of trees.
02:03And the speciality about this tree, as you can see, is its rather obese trunk.
02:08Which really doesn't mean that the tree is fat.
02:11It just means that the tree has a lot of water stored inside its trunk.
02:14The central trunk is, as you can see, bulbous and holds a lot of water.
02:19And the topmost area of the tree is where the leaves grow.
02:29This is actually a Southeast Asian species of plant called Pitithyllium dolci.
02:41We have them in India, Sri Lanka, but it's native to the Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines.
02:48So it's edible. It's called the Manila tamarind in English.
02:51And what was the scientific name?
02:54It's a tough one.
02:56It's Pitithyllium dolci.
03:00So this thing is called Pitithyllium dolci.
03:08Good job.
03:10Although I believe even I'm saying it wrong.
03:12Because it's not a native species. It's an exotic species.
03:15But it is edible.
03:18But now this is completely dry, right?
03:20It's completely dry.
03:22This is white, right?
03:23This is white or reddish.
03:25And it's an edible species that birds mostly enjoy.
03:29But humans also can eat it in times of need.
03:32If ever you have nothing to eat, you can visit the island and eat it.
03:35This, of course, is the national tree of the UAE.
03:39Ghaf. Ghafa.
03:41Tarsapis cineraria.
03:43Or the ghaf tree.
03:44It's in seeding mode right now.
03:46So it's always nice to spread the seeds around.
03:50And eventually more ghafs should arise.
03:53So you'll see a lot of these trees out here.
03:55And wherever there's a red board that says, I was saved,
03:58means that this particular tree was already existing on the island
04:01prior to its development as Al Noor Island.
04:04So in 2015, when Al Noor Island was developed,
04:07already there were a lot of trees on this island.
04:10None of them were displaced or moved.
04:12We just built them into the landscape.
04:14Or rather, had them in the landscape by planting other trees around them.
04:18And of course, they're being taken care of right now.
04:22Ahmed, let me show you these two interesting rock formations
04:26that we have on the island.
04:28They've been specially imported from Brazil.
04:30And the whole reason why they've been placed here is strategic.
04:34They're supposed to promote positivity, good health, good spirits, etc.
04:40So they're kind of like the guardians of the island in many ways.
04:47So this is, you could call this our sunset point.
04:50It's also a platform overlooking the west.
04:52So the west is where the sun is.
04:53It's a great time for sunset very soon.
04:56Plus, it's a great location to see the different other attractions of Sharjah,
05:02such as the Sharjah Amphitheatre to our left.
05:05Further ahead, you have the large Flag Island.
05:07We have Al Muntaza Park out there.
05:09And different hotels and different buildings around the Gwahara Carnation.
05:21Alright, so here we have what you can look and describe as a tree trunk, right?
05:27That looks like a tree trunk to you.
05:29But what if I told you that was stone, but not a tree anymore?
05:32It is a stone now.
05:33It's a petrified tree, or a tree that has turned into,
05:37or the tree remains have been mineralized over millions of years.
05:42Now how many million?
05:44We're talking at least 35 to 36 million years old.
05:47So this tree is older than anything else on this island,
05:50at least all the way until Malaya.
05:53So this is what they call the stone tree, or in literature it's called a petrified tree,
06:02which is basically nothing but a large tree trunk that has turned into stone
06:06because the tree trunk has been replaced by minerals and stony material.
06:11This actually is from Indonesia.
06:13It weighs over 1.5 tons.
06:17This is literally a stone, no?
06:20Yeah.
06:25Yeah.
06:27Interesting you try that with your mobile phone.
06:30There's some information about it here.
06:33Okay, we have information.
06:35It's 2 meters high.
06:36They also call it a fossil tree because it is fossilized.
06:39But it's not an animal fossil, it's a tree fossil.
06:47Oh my God.
06:49Oh my God.
07:00It's coming, it's coming, it's coming.
07:17All right, Ahmed, this is another of the art installations we have on the island.
07:21This is a piece by David Herber, a British artist,
07:24whereby, as you can see, this spherical sphere is actually not glass.
07:31It's stainless steel.
07:32It's been polished for many weeks to get a glass-like, mirror-like appearance.
07:37And the hole in between, which almost makes it look like a donut,
07:41is there for you to understand how nature mixes with its surroundings,
07:45especially this structure, when viewed from the other side,
07:48this is the view you get, which you can see out here if you pan out,
07:51of the city amongst the foliage of trees.
07:54So the feeling of nature mixed with modernity is apparent in this art installation.
08:00This is the Literature Pavilion, which is built in honor of His Highness,
08:04ruler of Sharjah, Sultan bin Muhammad al-Qasimi.
08:07And as you can see, it has cushions, it has a place to sit down and relax.
08:13There's a fountain running out there, there's birds chirping in the background,
08:17and there's a feeling of peace and tranquility.
08:20And this is one of the most beautiful places on the island.
08:24There's a fountain running out there, there's birds chirping in the background,
08:28and there's a feeling of being with yourself out here.
08:34And that's the main reason why this place has been called the Literature Pavilion.
08:39We expect people to come out here, take a book from the cafe or the butterfly house,
08:43sit down here, relax in tranquil surroundings, read the book,
08:46learn more about the place or whatever you'd like to learn about from the different books.
08:53Music
09:22This area is called the Cactus Garden of Al Noor Island.
09:25And as you can see, there's a range of cactuses here, or cacti here,
09:29which have been sourced from different parts of the world.
09:32The tall cactus that you see are called the barrel cactus.
09:36They're from Arizona in North America.
09:39And then you've got smaller pillow cactuses from other parts of the world as well.
09:43So the whole idea about this place is to bring out the different species of plants
09:49that exist besides plants and trees.
09:51Music
10:18Overall, Al Noor Island is a place, a getaway from the city,
10:21the hustle bustle of the city, from the concrete jungle.
10:24It's a tropical jungle in the middle of the city where families can enjoy themselves,
10:28immerse themselves, rejuvenate from their daily activities of life and business and work.
10:35Music