A most remarkable, and unexpected, haven for Arabia's endangered wildlife. Roughly half of this ancient island is the Arabian Wildlife Park — founded by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, first president of the UAE — home to 17.000 free-roaming animals, including Arabian oryx, gazelles, giraffes, hyenas and cheetahs. Sir Bani Yas also features the only pre-Islamic Christian site to be found in the UAE, a 7th-century monastery abandoned in 750 AD and rediscovered in 1992.