In Ghost Town

Have you ever been to a ghost town — a town, long abandoned and left all alone..over centuries ago.?

Well, I’ve been to such a place… Three other camera-comrades and I —
we set out to the place called Jazirat Al Hamra (Red Island) aka Ghost Town, in the northern part of UAE.
Driving through the night around 250 kms away from the Capital, we reached the place shortly after 4 am.
Sunrise in our minds; and our eyes were anxious and so didn’t complain about the lost sleep!
Scrolling a map in our mobile phone, we went in search of this so-called ghost town!

Our roads got narrower–the tarmac road became hard-mud and stony.
Light from the street-lamp poles got dimmer as we moved forward.
We searched for some entrance to the area in that darkness, the sky above – watching us.
Soon we were around some really small homes – with no doors, and floors so broken.

Our car came to a stop, and we got out of the car… looking at such a ghastly lifeless place!
Suddenly it struck to all of us that no more search needed—we were right in the middle of ghost town.
There was no other sound there and the heavy silence knocked our minds.
A movement in one of the open windows nearby caught our attention–
A pitch-black cat jumped and looked right into our heart–its eyes twinkled in the twilight.
It disappeared into darkness, and soon we heard a frantic cry of a bird in that wee hours of the morning.
The bird seemed to shriek in the distance, not far away; and we heard some howling afar.

Darkness enveloped us but we managed it with the background lights and small torch lights.
When the anxiety loosed up, we parked the car under a high standing minaret and walked, loaded with our photo-gears.
After a few turns, we found ourselves standing in a piece of history–like an island where it was once thick with life and action–
with real ancient adobe homes, masjid, alleys, watch towers, wells, wind-towers, walkways and passages that connects various parts of the town,
there were marketplace for the merchants, galleries, places of entertainment and gathering, courtyard, boutiques, promenades and boulevards—
all looked deserted, empty and neglected, but damaged and destroyed by time. But still half-standing.

For every turns taken, we felt like entering a labyrinth, that either leads to traces of human settlements,
deposited in layers of dust over forgotten memories, or, evidences of once inhabited by a human race.
However, soon we settled at a place and noticed a few dawn stars. We switched on our cameras : )
Here are some shots—

Shot @ UAE’s ghost town — Jazirat Al Hamra, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE:

1—Stars seen through the dust and light-filled sky:

2—These walls have seen and witnessed much — lifesyle of the old and later generations

3—When the sun rose. The rays and reflections touch and smoothen an old carriage vehicle in the middle of an abandoned ground.
The vehicle is almost rusted; its windshield broken in pieces, and the tires are worn out.

4—View from the right:

5—An old hanging lamp by a window

6—Corals from the sea used here for construction of building structures–can be seen on walls of homes and wells (macro shot)

7—Corals embedded on a wall of a well (another macro shot)

8—Inside a masjid-1. Its floors outside are crumbled.

9—Inside masjid-2

10—Inside masjid-3

All these are HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos. I’m starting HDR photography with this.

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Visit my 3 buddies pages for other views of Jazirat Al Hamra or Ghost Town. I’m sure you will find them interesting:
Nivin’s Wollreflections
Henry’s blog
Shafeel’s blog

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Joining with some photo memes as well–skywatch friday, scenic weekends, weekend reflections & saturday photo hunt.

Please search the internet for more info on this place.