Sharjah museums: hours, tickets and free entry

The Sharjah Museums Authority (SMA) runs 16 museums: 13 in Sharjah city, two in Khorfakkan and one in Kalba. Most open Saturday to Thursday 8am to 8pm and Friday 4pm to 8pm. A single ticket is AED 10 for adults and AED 5 for children aged 2 to 12, under-2s are free, and five Heart of Sharjah sites share a AED 20 heritage ticket. Four museums were listed as closed when we checked.

This page goes museum by museum. For the wider trip (buses from Dubai, the alcohol rule, Al Noor Island and the waterfronts) see our Sharjah visitor guide.

Opening hours of Sharjah museums

• Standard hours: Saturday to Thursday 8am to 8pm, Friday 4pm to 8pm. Friday mornings are closed everywhere.
• Sharjah Art Museum lists a later start: 9am to 8pm Saturday to Thursday.
• Ramadan: most museums open Saturday to Thursday 9am to 2pm and close on Friday. The Museum of Islamic Civilization, the Art Museum, the Aquarium and the Maritime Museum add an evening session from 9pm to 11pm, which stops in the last 10 days of Ramadan. The Aquarium and the Maritime Museum also open on Ramadan Fridays from 9pm to 11pm.
• Closure days: the 29th and 30th of Ramadan, the first day of Eid Al Fitr, the 9th of Dhul Hijjah (Arafah Day) and the first day of Eid Al Adha.

The Aquarium and the Maritime Museum show different Friday opening times on different SMA pages, so check those two on the day if you plan a Friday visit.

All 16 museums at a glance

Adults means 13 and over on every SMA page. Children under 2 enter free everywhere.

Joint tickets: which museums share one

The heritage ticket in Heart of Sharjah

AED 20 for adults and AED 10 for children aged 2 to 12. The museum pages list five sites: the Calligraphy Museum, Sharjah Fort (Al Hisn), Bait Al Naboodah, the Heritage Museum and Al Qasimia School. Two things to know before you buy:

• The Heritage Museum was listed as closed until further notice, so the ticket currently gets you into four open sites at most.
• The SMA FAQ names a different fifth site from the museum pages, so ask at the ticket desk exactly which sites are included that day.

Even at four sites the heritage ticket costs less than four single tickets (AED 40 for an adult).

Aquarium and Maritime Museum

The two Al Khan museums sit side by side. The Aquarium sells only the joint ticket: AED 25 adults, AED 15 children. The Maritime Museum also sells its own AED 10 ticket if you skip the fish.

Science and Archaeology museums

Both are in Al Abar on Sheikh Rashid Bin Saqr Al Qasimi Road. The Science Museum’s AED 25 / AED 15 ticket is the joint ticket and covers the Archaeology Museum too. The Archaeology Museum alone is AED 10 / AED 5.

Who gets in free

The museum pages list free entry for:

• children under 2
• visitors aged 60 and over, plus one companion
• people with disabilities, plus one companion
• ICOM membership card holders
• government school and university groups; private school and university groups are free at most museums but pay AED 5 a head at the Aquarium

Two sites are free for everyone: the Resistance Monument in Khorfakkan and the Sharjah Art Museum (which was temporarily closed when we checked).

Free days

• UAE National Day: all museums are free on 2 December. The individual museum pages extend this to 2–3 December.
• Ramadan: the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization is free for the whole month.
• Sharjah Heritage Days: free at the Heart of Sharjah heritage sites and Hisn Khorfakkan. SMA does not give the dates on these pages.

SMA also lists International Museum Day as free, but its English and Arabic pages give different dates, so we have not repeated either. Check the SMA FAQ nearer May.

Buying tickets and visiting

• Online: the SMA FAQ says tickets are on sale online through its e-shop at eshop.sma.gov.ae.
• Photography: allowed for personal use only. Commercial or research filming needs a request through SMA.
• Access: wheelchairs are available at all SMA museums, and SMA lists mothers’ rooms at 11 of them.
• With children: SMA names the Aquarium, the Science Museum and the Discovery Centre as its museums designed for children. Only the first two were open when checked.

Planning a museum day by area

The open city museums fall into three clusters, which makes a day easy to plan:

1. Heart of Sharjah and Al Majarrah: the heritage-ticket sites plus the Museum of Islamic Civilization. This is the largest group and fills a morning.
2. Al Khan: the Aquarium and Maritime Museum on one ticket. A good choice with children.
3. Al Abar: the Science and Archaeology museums on one ticket.

On Fridays you only have 4pm to 8pm, so pick one cluster. Khorfakkan’s two sites and Kalba’s heritage house are on the east coast and need a separate day trip.

Where to check before you go

• SMA museum list: each museum’s own page carries its hours, prices and closure notices.
• SMA FAQ: free days, joint tickets and accessibility.

For hotels, restaurants and services in the emirate, see the Sharjah directory.

Checked against the official sources listed on this page on 7 October 2026. Opening times and prices change, so confirm on the official site before you go. See our editorial policy.