Mountain · United Arab Emirates
Jebel Jais
Jebel Jais is the highest point of the United Arab Emirates, a bare limestone mountain in the Hajar range that reaches 1 892 metres. A wide road winds up to viewpoints near the top.
Picture credit: IbrahimKumar (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Angela Manthorpe (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Jebel Jais?
Jebel Jais is part of the Hajar Mountains.
You will find it in: the United Arab Emirates.
Summit: 25.953° N, 56.184° E
The story behind it
Jebel Jais is a huge block of pale limestone, cut by dry valleys called wadis that only fill with water after a heavy storm. The rock was once the floor of a warm sea, and walkers still find the shapes of shells and corals pressed into the stone. Nobody agrees on the exact height of the summit area, because the measurements differ by a few metres and the very top of the ridge lies over the border in Oman. Down at the coast the air is hot and sticky, but up here the wind is cool, and in winter ice can glitter on the rocks in the early morning. Goats, small foxes and tough thorny bushes live on the slopes, and people come mostly in the evening to watch the sun drop behind the brown mountains.
Find it on the globe
Jebel Jais is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How high is Jebel Jais?
The summit on Emirati ground is given as 1 892 metres above sea level. Different surveys come out a few metres apart, so the number is often rounded when it appears on signs.
Which country is Jebel Jais in?
The mountain rises in the United Arab Emirates, in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah near the northern tip of the country. The ridge it belongs to carries on across the border into Oman.
Can visitors drive up Jebel Jais?
A smooth mountain road climbs most of the way and ends at terraces with a wide view over the ranges. Walking is possible on marked routes, but the slopes are stony and shade is rare, so water and a hat are essential.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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