The Ubaid potsherd
Dating from around 5000 BC.
Rankin73 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rui Carita — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rankin73 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rankin73 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rui Carita — CC BY-SA 4.0
The National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah occupies the old fort of the ruling Al Qasimi family in the city's old town, their home until 1964. Opened in 1987, it is the emirate's largest museum, devoted to its archaeology and ethnography. An earlier fort of the rulers was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1621 and by the British in 1820, according to the emirate's Department of Antiquities and Museums. The present fort began as a defence tower on the town wall, its foundations dated to 1809–1819, and the rest was built after the 1820 peace treaty. After the family left in 1964 it housed the police headquarters and a prison, and in 1984 the ruler, Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, chose it for the museum. Rooms ring a courtyard with a wind tower, and the large rectangular tower recreates the original. Permanent galleries cover archaeology and Julfar, the port that preceded today's city, alongside weaponry and ethnography displays that change once or twice a year. Look for an Ubaid-period potsherd from around 5000 BC and a Hebrew-inscribed gravestone. A madbasa, or date-syrup press, was uncovered in the 2019 restoration, and Madbasa galleries opened in November 2025. The museum, on Al Hisn Road, closes on Mondays and the first day of Eid. Its February 2026 floor plan gives 8:00 to 18:00 in winter and 9:00 to 19:00 in summer, though the antiquities department lists Friday hours as 14:00 to 20:00. Dhayah Fort lies about 15 km north-east and Al Jazirah Al Hamra about 18 km south-west, as the crow flies.
Dating from around 5000 BC.
Diving tools and dhow models.
Opened in November 2025.
Al Hisn Road, Old Town, Ras Al Khaimah city
Its walls of coral blocks and stone insulated the rooms, and the courtyard's wind tower caught the breeze through its open sides and channelled it into the room below. In cooler weather the tower and its vents could be blocked with matting.
When the fort was converted between 1984 and 1987, the British archaeologist Beatrice de Cardi set up the archaeology galleries and the Austrian ethnologist Walter Dostal the ethnography galleries, per Ras Al Khaimah's official tourism site.