Season 1

We reveal the ancient innovations that lie behind some of the most enduring and romantic images of this region – the camel caravanserai and the lush oasis. And we discover the many other ingenious ways in which people here – for an incredible 125,000 years – have been overcoming the challenges of life in one of the world’s harshest environments.

We tell the remarkable story of how ancient people here used their unique location on the Gulf to find precious resources and forge trading links with the world. From the ancient free-divers who risked their lives to harvest pearls from the seabed, to the merchants who supplied history’s greatest civilisations, from Rome to China.

We look at the key events and forces that in the last 500 years have led to the glitz and glamour of the United Arab Emirates that we see today. From the rise of the tribes that battled for control of the different emirates, to the colonial meddling of the British, the discovery of oil and the struggle to form a new nation.