United Arab Emirates guide maps — reviewed 18 October 2026

Emirates: geoBoundaries gbOpen ARE ADM1, seven emirates, representing 2017.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors and Wambacher.
Licence: Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0 (ODbL).
https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/
https://www.geoboundaries.org/api/current/gbOpen/ARE/ADM1/
Pinned source snapshot:
https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/wmgeolab/geoBoundaries/9469f09/releaseData/gbOpen/ARE/ADM1/geoBoundaries-ARE-ADM1.geojson

The publicly downloadable uae-emirates.geojson is a derived database under
ODbL 1.0. Source geometry is repaired with GEOS/Shapely make_valid, polygonal
parts are retained and dissolved, then simplified at 0.00025 degrees with
topology preservation and rounded to a 0.000001-degree precision grid.
Collapsed line/point artifacts are omitted. English labels are curated.
The emirates retain their detached territories, including Hatta, Masfout,
Manama, Sharjah's east coast and Nahwa. Madha remains outside the UAE.
The snapshot is a generalised historical reference, not a legal survey or
an assertion about disputed territory. It does not add disputed Gulf islands.

Twenty city and town markers are selected WGS84 [longitude, latitude]
reference points, not municipal boundaries or a population ranking.
Kalba uses the older town near its fort. Liwa represents Mezaira'a, one
settlement in a much wider oasis belt. Dibba's Sharjah and Fujairah towns
are separate answers; Dibba Al Baya in Oman is not a UAE answer.
Hatta's town reference follows GeoNames:
https://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Hatta
Manama's reference follows Ajman's published city-area point:
https://data.ajman.ae/explore/assets/cities-area/explore/
The latter point lies approximately 300 metres beyond the old gbOpen
Ajman outline; membership validation allows a 500 m margin for this pin.
Its coordinate is retained rather than shifted into the older polygon.

Coastal waters: Natural Earth 1:10m marine polygons, public domain.
https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/
https://github.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/tree/master/geojson
  ne_10m_geography_marine_polys.geojson
  ne_10m_admin_0_countries.geojson
The checked-in regional snapshots scripts/oman-marine-source.geojson and
scripts/oman-context-land-source.geojson are shared with the Oman builder.
The Persian Gulf (also called the Arabian Gulf locally) and Gulf of Oman
are clipped to [51.2,22.4,56.9,26.5]. Land from both map sources is removed
with 50 metres of padding. The answer areas exclude visible land and do
not represent territorial seas, exclusive economic zones or claims.
No permanent rivers or artificial lake targets are invented for the deck.

Rebuild: node scripts/build-uae-maps.mjs [local-gbOpen-ADM1-file]
Requires the repository's Node dependencies and Python 3 with Shapely 2.
Without an argument, the builder downloads the pinned source snapshot.
Outputs include the three served GeoJSON files, atlas pack and name tables.

Sights: twenty editorial selections across all seven emirates. Landscape
and serial-property pins are representative, with their scope stated in
the descriptions. Faya's reference point follows Sharjah Archaeology:
https://jebelfaya.ae/
World Heritage properties and component descriptions:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ae/
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1343/
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1735/
Ed-Dur and Dhayah's tentative status is distinct from inscription.
Pins and map rounds do not establish current access or visitor arrangements.