Al Maryah Island

This guide to Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi opens with a cluster of glass bank towers named after a desert antelope, and traces the sandbar once called Sowwah before developers renamed it in 2012. It follows the real Al Maryah, a hidden village deep in the Liwa Oasis known for its herds of Arabian oryx, and the dredging and construction between 2007 and 2015 that turned salt-crusted mud into a financial free zone. Walk the waterfront promenade and picture the wading birds that once had this ground to themselves.