Qasr Al Hosn

This guide to Qasr Al Hosn in Abu Dhabi opens with a birth inside these coral-stone walls in 1918, then traces the fort back to its start around 1761 as a watchtower guarding the island's only freshwater well, and its growth under Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa and Shakhbut bin Dhiyab into the seat of Bani Yas rule. You'll hear how generations of sheikhs held court here, and how the National Consultative Council later met inside these same walls to argue out the terms of the region's future. Best heard standing in the courtyard where that council once gathered.