Sir Baniyas Island

This guide to Sir Baniyas Island in Abu Dhabi opens on a 1992 discovery: a forgotten seventh-century monastery of the Church of the East, buried under mudbrick and sand, complete with a church, stone houses and cisterns. It follows the artifacts unearthed there, from carved plaster crosses to traded glass and pottery, evidence of a community of monks who were craftsmen and traders as much as men of prayer. Picture archaeologist Hager al-Menhali kneeling in one of those nine stone houses in 2025, still finding new pieces of their story.