Sharjah Maritime Museum: Echoes of a Seafaring Past

Located in the Al Khan district, a short walk from the waterfront, the museum doesn’t announce itself loudly. It doesn’t need to. Its purpose is quieter: to preserve the memory of a time when sailing, fishing, and pearl diving were not hobbies or heritage but daily survival.

Originally opened in 2003 in Sharjah’s Heritage Area, the museum relocated and reopened in 2009 in a new, expanded setting that gave its growing collection more space to breathe. Inside, the displays follow a rhythm as steady as the tide – from traditional wooden dhows with broad hulls and sun-aged decks to delicate pearl-diving instruments that once travelled with men into open water armed with little more than a nose clip and a basket.

One gallery focuses on the sea’s role as a trade route. Here, an interactive table lets visitors trace the paths that once linked Sharjah to ports like Basra, Bombay, and Zanzibar. Projected maps and models show how small wooden ships carried everything from dates to spices, textiles to ideas. In another space, a star-studded dome comes to life at the press of a button, highlighting constellations once used for navigation. It’s an exhibit designed more to ground than to dazzle – a reminder that people once steered entire journeys by reading the sky.

The atmosphere throughout is immersive but never overwhelming. Audio softly plays the songs once sung by pearl divers. Films and ambient soundscapes help set the scene, while hands-on touchscreens offer deeper insights for those who want to linger.  

Workshops run regularly – especially on Thursdays – offering younger visitors a chance to craft, explore, and get their hands on pieces of the past. Children can learn how fish were caught with hand-woven nets, or how pearl merchants graded and measured their finds with astonishing precision. For schools and universities, joint tickets are available with the neighbouring Sharjah Aquarium, extending the experience from the historical to the ecological.

But the most powerful moments don’t come from the screens or even the stories. They come from the objects themselves. A heavy wooden pulley block. A carefully knotted rope. A battered, seaworthy Jalbot or Sanbūq – resting now on polished floors but still full of memory. These are things that once worked, carried lives, returned salt-streaked from journeys we can barely imagine.