A quiet set of sea side villages are owned partly by the Sultanate of Oman (Dibba Bayah), Fujairah (Dibba Muhallab) and Hisn Dibba by Sharjah. A quaint arrangement and worth a visit to the harbor in the evening to see the day’s catch and to purchase fish for a campsite barbecue. The fishmongers by the harbor will gut and fillet your purchase for a few Dirhams. The old Sharjah fort close to the water front is under restoration.
Famous in Islamic history, Dibba was the site of one of the great battles of the Ridda Wars, the re conquest of Arabia by Muslim Armies in the generation after the death of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him). The Adz tribes and towns which had sworn allegiance to Islam during the Prophet’s lifetime did not feel themselves bound to the new religion following his death.
Three armies were sent from Makkah by the Caliph Abu Baker in 632 AD to suppress this revolt, of which two reached Dibba and a great battle ensued. There is a vast cemetery with over 1 0,000 headstones in the plain, marking the burial sites of the dead. The victory in Dibba in 633 AD, a year after the Prophet’s death, traditionally marks the end of the Muslim re conquest of Arabia and the decline of Dibba’s eminence.
The mountains to your left rise an impressive 6,000 feet into the Musandam Peninsula and the famous pass winds its way across the mountains, through Wadi Bih, back to Ras Al Khaimah on the West Coast.
From Dibba the coastal drive takes about 40 minutes on mainly dual carriageway, to Khor Fakkan, the Emirates main town on the East Coast