The National's best photo essays of 2021

The National's picture editors pick the best photo essays shot by staff photographers in 2021

Wrestlers of Dubai

Full story: Inside the painful but friendly world of the amateur grappler

UAE frontline workers from 10 countries talk about the challenges of the job

Full story: 'The National' asked 10 people at the forefront of the UAE's battle against Covid the question: what is the biggest challenge you have faced while being a PCR frontline worker?

The Abu Dhabi artisans preserving Bedouin skills

Full story: Women’s Handicraft Centre celebrates age-old techniques passed down from mothers to daughters

How you make ice in the desert

Full story: Gulf Ice Factory & Modern Ice Factory – G&M Ice – in Dubai Investment Park started producing ice in the Emirates in 1976

Inside the UAE's only shrimp farm

Full story: This is how Al Jaraf Fisheries produces millions of shrimp and fish in one of the world’s driest countries

September 11, 20 years on

Full story: Americans now resident in the UAE talk about their experience of that day

The UAE's retro water towers

Full story: From Dubai to Umm Al Quwain, the water tanks take us back in time

The UAE's 14 most quirky roundabouts

Full story: From a fish sculpture in Deira to oysters in Ras Al Khaimah

The men operating the world's largest dhow

Full story: The enormous Obaid, a 20m wide and 11m tall vessel, holds the record for the largest wooden Arabic dhow in the world