The Rough Guide to Oman

Gavin Thomas

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Print ISBN: 9781848365988
• eBook ISBN: 9781409350651
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Oman is one of the world's most exciting emerging tourist destinations-offering a genuine taste of old Arabia and an oasis of traditional culture amidst the frantically modernizing Gulf states. The country boasts a string of captivating attractions. Scenically, it's one of the region's most memorable destinations, from the craggy uplands of the Hajar mountains to the spectacular fjords of the Musandam peninsula and the dramatic dunes of the Wahiba Sands. Culturally, the country boasts a variety of absorbing sights, ranging from the traditional souks of Muscat, Nizwa, and Salalah to the atmospheric mudbrick towns and towering forts of the interior.

The new Rough Guide to Oman is the first in-depth guide to this fascinating country, complete with
detailed coverage of all sights, new state-of-the-art maps, and practical information including comprehensively road-tested information about driving and walking routes both on and off the beaten track.

Originally published in print in 2011.

Now available in ePub format.

The Guide

Muscat >>

The Western Hajar >>

Al Batinah and Al Dhahirah >>

Musandam >>

Sharqiya >>

Dhofar >>

Muscat

HIGHLIGHTS

Dolphin-watching Take a boat trip out for a glimpse of frolicking dolphin pods, and for unrivalled views of the area’s rugged coastline.

Muttrah Souk Oman’s most absorbing souk: a labyrinthine tangle of tiny shops piled high with Arabian curios and exotica.

Al Alam Palace Sultan Qaboos’s colourful Muscat residence offers an eye-catching example of contemporary Arabian design at its most memorably flamboyant.

Bait al Zubair The best museum in the city, with wide-ranging displays on Omani culture and crafts.

Souq Ruwi Street The vibrant commercial heart of Muscat’s “Little India”, crammed with colourful shops and curry houses.

Afternoon tea at Al Bustan Palace or the Grand Hyatt Sit back over a traditional English afternoon tea while enjoying the super-fuelled Arabian kitsch of Muscat’s two most extravagant hotels.

Sultan Qaboos Mosque Magnificent modern mosque rising above the western approaches to the city – and the only one in the country open to non-Muslim visitors.

Muscat

Oman’s capital, and far and away its largest city, MUSCAT offers an absorbing snapshot of the country’s past and present. Physically, much of the city is unequivocally modern: a formless straggle of low-rise, white-washed suburbs which sprawl along the coast for the best part of 25km, now home to a population nudging up towards the million mark – a quarter of the country’s total. It’s here that you’ll find Oman at its most contemporary and consumerist, exemplified by the string of opulent hotels which line the city’s sand-fringed coastline, backed up by swanky restaurants and modern malls, and honeycombed with a network of roaring, multi-lane highways. It’s also unquestionably the commercial and administrative powerhouse of modern Oman, from the stately government buildings which line the main highway into town through to the high-rise office blocks of Ruwi’s Central Business District.

Significant reminders of the city’s past remain, however. These include, most notably, the engaging port district of Muttrah and the nearby quarter of Old Muscat, spread out along a salty seafront lined with old Portuguese forts, colourful mosques and assorted traditional Arabian buildings (many now converted to smale-scale museums). These are the places where you’ll get the strongest sense of Muscat’s sometimes elusive appeal, with its beguiling atmosphere of old-time, small-town Arabian somnolence, quite different from the somewhat faceless modern suburbs to the west. Muttrah and neighbouring Ruwi also offer the city’s most interesting streetlife, and the best view of the patchwork of cultures which make up the city: Omani, Indian and Pakistani, with an occasional hint of Zanzibari, Baluchi and Iranian thrown in for good measure – a living memory of the city’s surprisingly cosmopolitan past.

Some history

Evidence of human settlement in the Muscat area dates back to at least 6000 BC, although the city’s rise to national pre-eminence is a much more recent affair. Muscat’s port was sufficiently important to merit passing references in the works of Greek geographers, including Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder during the first century AD. For much of early Omani history though, it was overshadowed first by Sohar, to the north, and then Qalhat, to the south; one of the first European visitors to Muscat, Thomas Kerridge, writing in 1624 to the East India Company, described it as a “beggarly poor town”.

Muscat suffered particularly at the hands of the Portuguese, who captured the town in 1508 and held onto it until 1650 – although ironically it was the Portuguese destruction of the nearby ports of Qalhat and Quriyat which cleared the way for Muscat’s subsequent economic rise. The town began to flourish during the early Al Bu Said era in the second half of the eighteenth century when it established itself as the country’s leading port and entrepot, while it also assumed increasing political significance during the reign of Hamad bin Said (1784–92), who moved the court to Muscat, where it has generally remained ever since. The city’s economic position was confirmed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thriving as a major centre for a range of economic activities including fishing, boat-building, slaving, arms-smuggling and general trade.

The sprawling metropolis you see today is a largely modern creation. Until the accession of Sultan Qaboos in 1970 the town comprised simply the old walled town of Muscat proper (or “Old Muscat”, as it’s now known), home to the residence of the sultan and other notables, and the separate port of Muttrah, the centre of the town’s commercial activity.

Arrival

Muscat International Airport (

www.omanairports.com), still sometimes referred to by its old name of Seeb International Airport, lies on the western edge of the city, around 30km from Muttrah and Ruwi, and around 15km from the modern city-centre suburbs including Khuwair and Qurum. It’s usually around a thirty-minute drive to Muttrah and Ruwi, or fifteen to twenty minutes to Khuwair/Qurum, although the trip can take significantly longer depending on the city’s unpredictable traffic. The airport is also about a twenty-minute drive from the nearby town of Seeb to the west. For visa information and requirements, see section Entry requirements.

Pre-paid airport taxis leave from directly outside the arrivals hall, costing 7–8 OR to most places in town (and also to Seeb) apart from Al Bustan Palace (10 OR) and the Shangri-La Barr al Jissah Resort (13 OR). There are also a few ATMs, plus Oman Mobile, Nawras and Samatel kiosks if you want to pick up a local SIM card and a string of car-rental agents.

Moving on from Muscat

The main ONTC bus station is in Ruwi (see map) ...

Table of contents

• Book contents
• How to use this Rough Guide ePub
• Introduction to Oman
• Basics
• The Guide
• Contexts
• Mountain Oman
• Desert Oman
• Language
• Map symbols
• Small print