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 Arzanah is located 25 kilometres southeast of Dayyinah, 175 kilometres from Abu Dhabi. The island, with an area of about 10 square kilometres, has a barren central hilly spine rising to 66 metres and is geologically the higher part of an underlying salt dome. Once a centre of the oil industry, its facilities are now being de-commissioned, and an ecological restoration programme may follow this.
The island once supported a large colony of Socotra cormorants (Phalocrocorax nigrogularis) and numerous pairs of red-billed tropic-birds (Phaethon aethereus). A few turtles come ashore to lay annually, but the hatchlings, as with incubating seabirds and chicks, suffer predation by cats. The national oil company, ADNOC, commenced a programme to remove introduced predators in 1996.
No archaeological sites have been located on Arzanah, although it first appears in history in 1580 in a list of Gulf islands published by the Venetian jeweller Gasparo Balbi. Recent development may have destroyed some sites, although further survey work is required.
Important pearl beds exist locally which were presumably exploited in historic times.
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