Qasr Al Hosn

Why go

Qasr Al Hosn is a fort in the Al Hosn area of central Abu Dhabi, now open as a museum of the city and its ruling Al Nahyan family. The fort's own history page describes a coral-stone watchtower ordered by Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa, enlarged into a fortified enclosure under Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab, who used it as his seat of government, and a palace built around the old walls after the 1939 oil concessions; Visit Abu Dhabi dates the inner fort to 1795 and the outer palace to 1939 to 1945, and says it opened as a museum in 2018 after more than 11 years of conservation. The site's visit page says Qasr Al Hosn itself is ticketed, unlike the House of Artisans, the Cultural Foundation and the landscape, that tickets are booked online or bought at the site's ticketing desk, and that Al Hosn tickets are non-refundable. This record is the fort and its museum, not the Cultural Foundation across the street or the House of Artisans in the grounds. The first watchtower's date differs between sources (1790 on Visit Abu Dhabi, a 1761 to 1795 period on the fort's own page), so none is given here.