Jebel Faya

Jebel Faya (Arabic: جَبَل ٱلْفَايَة, romanized: Jabal Al-Fāyah) is an archaeological site and limestone hill or escarpment in near Mleiha, Al Faya in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE.

Located about 50 km (31 miles) east of the city of Sharjah, and between the shoreline of the Gulf and Al Hajar Mountains, the Paleolandscape of Faya contains tool assemblages and burials from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age reflecting human occupation of the region between 210,000 and 2,300 years ago.

The earliest lithic assemblage found at the Faya-1 site is testament to a virile southern dispersal route of anatomically modern humans from Africa to populate the earth and was dated using single-grain optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) to approximately 125,000 years ago.

The tools found at Faya are distinctive and have links in their form and type to tools of a similar age found in Sudan, giving us confidence in the idea of a virile southern trajectory rather than a leakage east of the people embarking on the Levantine path to Europe. This idea has been strengthened by work from other sites. From Faya they would have crossed to Iran and spread north and east.

The finds from excavations at Faya and surrounding digs are displayed at the Mleiha Archaeological Centre.

The site was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2025.