Oman, authentic Arabia

The journey to Oman was a package tour organized by a French agency. It was part of a programme of visits to the Middle-East to discover the roots of Christian Western and the Moslem Worlds.

The group was composed of 9 people. The French woman guide of the Yemen trip in 1993 accompanied this tour in the south-eastern horn of the Arabian peninsula.

The tour was made in 1995, from February 19 to February 28. After a Gulf Air flight, the arrival in Muscat via Abu-Dhabi was on time.

The report is in eight tables. The general comments are given by the Oman presentation.

Muscat, Sur
Abu-Dhabi airport
Wadi al-Shaab

Qalhat

Sur

Approach: The Gulf Air flight lasted nearly 8 hours from Paris to Muscat after a 30-minute stopover at Abu Dhabi. It took off at 2 pm from Paris to landed at 9:45 pm (Paris time) at the international airport of Muscat.

Muscat: The capital of Oman is a port between the sea and the ochre mountains of the back land. The harbour is kept by the forts of Mirani and Jelali, vestiges of a large maritime empire that could illustrate The Arabian Night".
A walk in the city made it possible to appreciate all its beauty:
The Oman museum: It makes the synthesis of the history of the Sultanate since prehistory with charts, models and archaeological artefacts.
The French museum: It shows the friendly relations between Oman and France for several centuries.

From Muscat or Mascate, according to pronunciation, we headed for Quriyat in a very varied landscape, sometimes lunar, with the jagged mountains brooks with turquoise waters surrounded by oases.

Wadi al-Shaab: We had lunch in lovely place. I discovered luxuriant vegetation along a wadi at the foot of pink cliffs.

Qalhat: In the 14th and 15th centuries, the site was the capital of the sovereigns of Hormuz whose the maritime empire extended from India to Africa. What is left from the site is tragic after the iconoclast passage of the Portuguese.
The city was the home port of the imaginary "Sinbad the sailor".
The Sohar fort is a vast rectangle with a tower in its centre, the dramatic vestige of a prestigious past. It is the ruin of a mosque of the Seljuk period.

Sur: The city is the last sheltered harbour on the coast of the gulf of Oman, known since antiquity. Close to the coast in a cove, a shipyard of boutres perpetuates the ancestral techniques of the wooden work, oakum and macadam binding of the hull.


This journey under the authority of our very competent guide was in convoy of three powerful air-conditioned Japanese 4x4. Of course at the stops the guide gave us a lot of information.
We discovered that a woman photographer had joined of this group to take photographs of people. Her nerve and inconsiderateness bothered us.

Nizwa

Approach: The road goes round the powerful impenetrable massif eastern Hajjar and follows wadi Bani Khalid as far as the dunes of the Wahiba desert.

Al-Kamil: The city is located in a coloured and arid mineral world, sometimes punctuated by some camps of half-settled Bedouins.

Wadi Bani Khalid: By a sand and stone track, we reached the site of Dawah at the foot of an escarpment of the Hajjar massif, it was the place for lunch.

Ibra: The al-Kamil and Ibra villages mark a transition with the plain of Sharqiya, in green vegetation, a true miracle of an irrigation system 2500 years old, "Falaj". Their adobe architecture, characteristic of ancient towns, is still well preserved.

Nizwa: The city is the former capital of the Imam, the symbol of traditional Oman and historical centre of the sultanate. It still shows beautiful old houses surrounded with garden-orchards. Its fort, with its immense rotunda, has dominated the city since the 17th century.

Birkat Al-Mawz, Tanouf: These places has lost their inhabitants, the Bani Riya tribe, after the revolt of the Imam against the sultan in 1950.

Bahla: It was the former dynastic capital from the 12th to 17th century. The vestiges of its immense wall continue to surround the city.

Jabrine: The fort built after the expulsion of the Portuguese is one of the jewels of Omani architecture. Recently renovated, it shows the refinement of the life of the tribe chiefs.

Al-Hamra, Misfah: These two villages are undoubtedly the most beautiful of Jebel Akhdar for the homogeneity of their constructions: towers and tall dry stone-built houses overhanging the palm plantation.

Baat: Before getting into the wadi Sahtan, we went through the al-Silaif and Ibri villages. The excavations of the archaeological site of Baat have revealed a very interesting necropolis of the 3rd millennium.

Al-Hazm oasis: On our way we observed enigmatic rupestral engravings. Al-Hazm has one of the most beautiful forts in the country: the austerity of its external architecture is balanced by an extraordinary interior decoration.

Rustaq: The city is the former capital of the Yaruba dynasty. The fort was the residence of the Imam in the 17th and 18th centuries. The souk was particularly busy at the time of our visit.

Nakhl: The city was part of the territory of the Yaruba dynasty. The fort has been well restored.

On the trip back to Muscat, we visited a modern mosque whose splendour is worthy of the mosques of the Umayyad era.
Wadi-Bani Khalid
Scenery
Rock drawings
Jabrine

Nakhl

Mosque


This first part of the journey was characterized by the peaceful life of deep Oman, the will of the government to restore all the buildings of the Sultanate past, the oldest in the area.
The visit of the souq showed women wearing linen masks to hide their faces. Who is this God of constraint and exclusion? He is the creation of a man from a desert tribe.

Salalah
Incense tree

Camel breeding

Lust

Approach: The second part of the journey was devoted to the discovery of Dhofar. The transfer from Muscat to Salalah was by an Oman Air flight . It lasted 1 hour and a quarter.

The southernmost part of Oman is subject to the monsoon influence: It is green. It is one of the areas in the world, with Yemen and Somalia, where incense trees grow. Incense and myrrh were very appreciated in Greece, Rome, Egypt and even China.

Ubar : on the border of desert al-Rub' al-Khagali, the city is a testimony of those city-stages along the long incense road which were used as warehouses, for aromatics and spices coming from Asia. Recent excavations have attested its activity as of the 3rd millennium BC.

Al-Baleed: The city was known from 10th to the 15th century under the name of Zufar.

Kor-Ruri, Sumharam: The fortress in ruin is the testimony of a colony coming from Shabwa in Hadhramawt, the centre of the incense trade. It was probably the main harbour of incense to Mukala.

Mirbat: At the Piedmont of the Qara mountain, the city was a very active trading post in the 9th century. Some beautiful merchant houses have kept finely carved entrance doors.
Nabi Ayuob mosque is an important pilgrimage centre, it is said to shelter the tomb of prophet Job.


The landscapes of Dhofar are like the landscapes of eastern Hadhramawt, they are in continuity. But the monsoon being more intense, the vegetation is more luxuriant.
On the other hand, the environmental quality is very different, the contrast is unbelievable between the dirt of some cities of Hadhramawt and the meticulous cleanliness of Dhofar.


The dynastic continuity since the 17th century can explain the system of values and the level of development of Oman. The environmental protection policy is very effective. The financial resources brought by oil industry account for that.
Indeed, the parsimonious granting of visas excludes undesirable persons, polluters by definition. The splendid beaches are not spoilt like those of Goa and other places.


The return to France was made by Gulf Air in a night flight.
Neuilly, le 2003/12/14