Known as Valley of the Coppersmiths, Wadi Safafir represents an ancient copper mining area, together with neighbouring Wadi Gharghur. Set in the Hajar Mountains surrounding Ras Al Khaimah, one finds mineshafts, copper residue, remnants of a mining village and in addition, falaj traditional irrigation channels. Copper mining is understood to have been undertaken during the second millennium BC which marked the Bronze Age, then in the early Islamic period between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD.
Hiking through the two wadis provides both evidence of past civilisations, a copper mining industry and spectacular views. The trek requires a reasonable level of fitness.