Much has changed since the last review from 2023. The heritage village is now almost fully restored and open for business. It seems, they have big plans to promote this. There are 2 big parking lots on either entrance, plus a visitor centre, viewing platform, children’s playground, and the reconstruction of a souk, that might serve for shops. The only thing missing was visitors. Apart from the 3 of us, we saw around 4 more tourists. The rest was either part of a film crew or worked there on finishing the reconstructions.

I really liked walking around the village. It’s a large area with several open houses and a fort to explore. I do however have my doubts about the OUV. Much like Khor Dubai, it is so heavily reconstructed, that it rather looks like a Disneyland version of an old pearling village. They left some untouched structures now and then, where you can see the coral stone used for the construction of the houses. But most of them look brand new. Good enough for a visit, but probably not good enough for the WH list.