OMAN
Taimur, in a 1970 coup with the help of the British — bloodless, although his father accidentally shot himself in the foot with a pistol during the commotion, and lived out the rest of his days in London’s Dorchester Hotel. Sultan Qaboos went on to oversee the renaissance of Oman — oil money transformed the nation at lightning pace from a poor backwater to a prosperous, peaceful power in the easternmost nook of Arabia. In a region famed for rulers with tyrannical inclinations, Sultan Qaboos loved Mozart and built a magnificent opera house. He passed away in 2020 to be succeeded by his cousin Sultan Haitham bin Tariq. But wherever you go in the country the twin portraits of these two rulers watch over you — each seated on a golden throne, each clutching a gilded khanjar. Lesser khanjars are for sale when I visit
Muttrah Souk — a labyrinth of covered alleyways that burrows inland from the city’s corniche. Stepping inside, aromas of frankincense and rose water mingle with the musty scent of brass curios including telescopes and sextants (navigational tools) — some antique, some replicas made in China. Iron lanterns scatter latticed light over neatly folded pashminas. Before I leave Muscat, I stop at the Sultan
Left: The imposing peaks of the Hajar Mountains with a dirt road snaking towards Wadi Bani Awf
Qaboos Grand Mosque. The largest in the country, it opened in 2001 as a spiritual landmark of the national renaissance. Minarets rise over marble courtyards and pigeons coo under swooping arches. The prayer hall is cool and cavernous, built from materials sourced from across the globe: chandeliers made of Austrian crystals; teak from Myanmar; a carpet from Iran, crafted with 1.7 million knots. Umayyad-style arches recall the designs of Damascus and Cordoba, while blue tiles nod to the splendour of Istanbul and Isfahan. It’s a mosque for a
capital that’s consciously gazing outward to the world, and is open to non-Muslims, too. “You can speak to god in any language,” says Sanima, the attendant in the mosque’s education centre, where I stop for dates and coffee. “He understands them all.”
Into the mountains Modern Oman is criss-crossed by tarmac roads, traversed by multi-lane highways, flooded with cheap petrol and busy with imported Japanese cars. Yet at the heart of the nation is an immense mountain range that’s impregnable to even the best efforts of road builders. “This is a serious route,’’ says my driver,
Nawaf Al Wahaibi, as we throttle up the dirt track into Wadi Bani Awf. “You have to drive it many times to master it. I don’t believe people will ever be able to lay tarmac here.” Wadi Bani Awf is one of the valleys that
trails into the heart of the Hajar Mountains. Clinging to its contours is our track — part thoroughfare, part roller coaster — often travelled on 4x4 sightseeing tours by people who come to marvel at the highland vistas and escape the lowland heat. Road signs sternly warn of the dangers of the route, which is accessible only to drivers with the nerves of an iron khanjar. Our 4x4 storms and slaloms up steep gradients. The engine heats up, the air thins and our ears pop. Sheer drops loom inches from the tyre treads. Eventually the view opens out into a vast panorama of rock: citadel mountains and canyons gouged deep into the earth. Birds of prey ride the thermals below. We are a world away from the coast. Rising to 3,000m from the coastal plain,
the Hajar Mountains were once a barrier — preserving ancient traditions, keeping outsiders away. In one sense this is the real Oman: until the 1970s, the country was
JUNE 2023 105
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204
