Time Frame: Just a stone’s throw from the tropics

There is a sense of tranquillity about this image that makes it particularly appropriate for a spring weekend in 2015.

It was taken 45 years ago in Al Ain, capturing a group strolling through the oasis, the women brightly dressed and carrying their young children. Only the sandy path reveals that this is in the desert.

Given the general lushness of the scene, filled with greenery and luxurious vegetation, it is almost tempting to describe it as tropical, which would be incorrect. But not as wrong as you might think. Just 80 kilometres south of Al Ain runs the Tropic of Cancer, at 23.5 degrees north of the Equator.

This line of latitude bisects the Arabian Peninsula, crossing the UAE north of Liwa, and includes everything to the borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia. It might seem odd to describe the vast desert wilderness of this part of the country as in the tropics – but it is.

* James Langton