Why it looks like this

On the ground there is no gap: Sharjah's grid runs into Dubai's, and hundreds of thousands of commuters cross the invisible border daily, drawn by cheaper rents on the Sharjah side. The city wraps around the Khalid Lagoon, with a restored heritage quarter by the old creek recalling its trading-port origins.

The map's oddity is that Sharjah is in three places: besides the main city, the emirate holds Khor Fakkan, Kalba and Dibba Al-Hisn — exclaves on the east coast facing the Gulf of Oman — making it the only emirate with land on both of the UAE's coasts.