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 Formerly known as Bu Khushaishah, Al-Aryam is privately owned and there is no public access. One of a chain of barrier islands just west of Abu Dhabi, it is largely salt flats (‘sabkha’), with low hills at its northern end, facing out on to the Arabian Gulf. Extensive areas of mangroves (Avicennia marina) ring its western shoreline.
Small captive herds of sand gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa), mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella) and Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) live on the island, while dugongs (Dugon dugon) and humpbacked dolphins (Sousa chinensis) are seen occasionally in the surrounding waters.
The lagoon to the east of Al-Aryam is maintained as a marine reserve, with all commercial fishing prohibited. The area is a stronghold for breeding ospreys (Pandion haliaetus), of which at least nine pairs were breeding in January 2000. Some use natural rock outcrops, but several pairs utilise artificial nest sites specially built by the island's owner. The density of ospreys is higher here than anywhere else in the Arabian Gulf.
Fishermen from Abu Dhabi’s coastal tribes formerly inhabited Al-Aryam. The site of a coastal village on the east of the island dates back to the seventeenth or eighteenth century AD, and contains shells of pearl oyster (Pinctada radiata) and the edible gastropods Hexaplex kuesterianus and the mud-creeper Terebralia palustris. Terebralia shells have been found nowhere else on Abu Dhabi's islands, although it was commonly exploited in the northern UAE.
There are no permanent supplies of fresh water on Al-Aryam, but the ancient inhabitants skilfully made use of the landscape to create large water collection systems to trap winter rainfall. A rock-cut cistern at Bu Karwah is over 5 metres long, 3 metres wide and 2 metres deep, large enough to provide sufficient water for several months in years of good rainfall.
As with other islands, Al-Aryam provides clear evidence of the way in which the ancient inhabitants of the Emirates exploited the scarce natural resources in order to be able to survive in the country's harsh environment.
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