Al Jazirah Al Hamra — the jinn-haunted ghost town of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Al Jazirah Al Hamra is an abandoned fishing and pearling village near Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, and it is widely considered the most haunted location in the UAE. The village was inhabited by the Za'ab tribe until the early 1970s, when the residents relocated to newer settlements as the UAE modernized rapidly after the discovery of oil. The empty coral-stone houses, mosque, and market buildings have stood largely untouched for over 50 years, creating one of the last surviving traditional Gulf Arab villages. The village is believed to be haunted by jinns — supernatural beings central to Islamic cosmology. Visitors report hearing voices in Arabic, seeing figures in traditional Emirati dress walking between the buildings, and experiencing equipment malfunctions when attempting to photograph or film inside the structures. Some visitors describe an overwhelming feeling of being unwelcome, as though the jinns are protective of the abandoned village. The UAE's rapid modernization — from pearl-diving settlements to glass skyscraper cities in a single generation — has erased most physical traces of the traditional Gulf way of life. Al Jazirah Al Hamra's survival, protected perhaps by its supernatural reputation, makes it both a heritage site and a haunting reminder of the world that the oil boom replaced.