Liwa is not a single oasis but a chain of them, running roughly east to west along the northern boundary of the Rub al Khali — the Empty Quarter — in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi. It is the largest oasis complex in the United Arab Emirates, and the villages strung between the dunes are its settlements.
Agriculture and water
Farming at Liwa depends entirely on groundwater and on the date palm. The palms are planted in depressions between the dunes where water lies closest to the surface, and the traditional technique of growing date palms over a lower layer of fruit trees and ground crops is used here as at Al Ain. Wells and falaj channels carry water to the plots. The date harvest is the main agricultural event of the year, and Liwa dates are among the country's best known.
The Al Nahyan and the desert
Liwa is the historic homeland of the Al Nahyan, the ruling family of Abu Dhabi; Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan spent part of his youth there. The oasis was the base from which the Bani Yas moved between the interior and the coast, and it remained the family's interior stronghold long after Abu Dhabi town became the centre of government.
Desert and tourism
The oasis gives access to the Empty Quarter, the largest continuous sand desert in the world, and the area around it is used for desert driving, camping and the Moreeb dune, a large slipface used for dune-climbing competitions during the Liwa International Festival. The annual date festival and the desert festival bring visitors from across the country, and several restored forts and a heritage village present the area's history.
Visiting
Liwa is about two and a half hours' drive from Abu Dhabi city and roughly three from Dubai, on a good road. Accommodation is limited and is concentrated in a few resorts on the edge of the dunes. Summer travel is inadvisable because of the heat, and desert driving requires appropriate preparation.