• The city of Al Ain, the UAE’s verdant "Garden City," lay stretched out beneath a relentless, polished blue sky. It was a place of dramatic contrasts: the harsh, rust-colored Jebel Hafeet mountain looming over meticulously managed date palm groves and fountains that shimmered with manufactured coolness. There was a peaceful, historical quality to Al Ain, a sense that deep, ancient knowledge still thrived here, sheltered from the flash of the coastal cities