Welcome to my Discover Oman Website!

This page contains a lot of information about my trip to Oman. I visited Oman in my spring
holiday together with my girlfriend and her relatives from 26 February until 5 March 1999.

• General Information about Oman
  Long known as the hermit of the Middle East, the Sultanate of Oman is slowly emerging from its shell, revealing a land of friendly people, dramatic landscapes and a lot of forts. The capital, Muscat, lacks the nouveau-riche feel that typifies much of the rest of the Gulf, and although Oman remains, in many ways, the most traditional country in the region, it's often more outward looking than it's given credit for.

  During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries Oman was an imperial power that vied first with Portugal and later with Britain for influence in the Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the coasts of India and East Africa. Its development since the ascension of Sultan Qaboos Bin Said in 1970 is all the more striking because the country's oil reserves are so limited, and because the previous sultan, Said Bin Taimur, had kept Oman sealed off from the outside world.

• Environment

Oman occupies the eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, bordered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the north-west, Saudi Arabia to the west and Yemen to the south-west. At its northernmost point it's just over 50km (30mi) south of Iran across the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan and India are, respectively, 500km (300mi) and 1000km (600mi) across the Arabian Sea to the east. Oman is slightly smaller than New Zealand or the US state of Kansas, though the part of Oman's border with Saudi Arabia that runs through the Empty Quarter is in dispute, and Oman's exact size isn't known. The Musandem Peninsula forms the country's northern tip, which is separated from the rest of the country by the United Arab Emirates' eastern coast and includes the only coast Oman has on the Persian Gulf. The Omani enclave of Madha is entirely surrounded by the UAE and lies halfway between the Musandem Peninsula and the rest of Oman.

Oman's diverse geography includes rugged coasts, placid beaches, craggy mountains, salt flats, oases and deserts. The northern coastal strip along the Gulf of Oman is known as the Batinah coast, a sand and gravel plain separated from the rest of the country by the Hajar Mountains. The highest peak is Jebel Akhdar ('green mountain') at 2980m (9775ft). Oman also has two large areas of salt flats, one in the central west and another opposite Massirah Island, off the eastern coast, and just south of the popular Wahiba Sands desert area.

Oman has one of the world's most rigourously green governments, and a fascinating array of animals thrives in the protected areas. Sanctuaries have been set aside for rare Arabian oryx, giant sea turtles (which come to Oman to breed), the Arabian tahr (a wild goat which nearly became extinct but is now flourishing), Arabian wolf and leopard, striped hyena and the sooty falcon. The sultan has devoted much attention to the country's plant life: coastal areas are preserved and there are National Protected Areas scattered around the country.

Its varied geography means Oman has a wide variety of climatic conditions. Muscat is hot and humid from mid-March until October and pleasantly warm from October to March. In the southern Salalah area, humid weather with temperatures approaching 30°C (90°F) is common even in December. The Salalah area gets drenched by monsoon rains from June to September.

• History

As in much of the rest of Arabia, the earliest known settlements in Oman date from the 3rd millennium BC. In that era an empire known as Magan developed along the Batinah, Oman's northern coast, exploiting the rich veins of copper found in the hills around Sohar. The region's economy declined over the centuries and sometime around 563 BC northern Oman was incorporated into the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Southern Oman's Dhofar region flourished due to the presence of frankincense-producing trees. This aromatic gum was one of the ancient world's most sought-after substances and it kept southern Arabia wealthy well into the 6th century AD.

In the mid-8th century AD the tribes of northern Oman swept into the rest of Arabia, briefly conquering Medina, where they were subsequently overthrown by the Abbasids. Though defeated, Oman managed to remain relatively free of Abbasid control. Until 1506, when the Portuguese began prowling the Indian Ocean, Omani naval power had few rivals in the area. The Portuguese occupied Oman for more than a century, until they were expelled by Imam Sultan bin Saif in 1650.

This victory marked the beginning of a great expansion: by the end of the 18th century the Omanis ruled a far-flung empire. At its peak in the 19th century, under Sultan Said bin Sultan, Oman controlled both Mombasa and Zanzibar and operated trading posts even further down the African coast. It also controlled portions of the Indian subcontinent. Oman stagnated after Said's sons split his empire, a situation which the British exacerbated by pressing the sultan to end the trade in slaves and arms for which the country had long been known. This left the sultan a great deal poorer, and lack of money left the interior difficult to control. When Sultan Faisal bin Turki died in 1913, the interior's tribes refused to recognise his son as imam, leading to a split between the coastal area ruled by the sultan and the interior, which came to be controlled by a separate line of imams.

In 1938 a new sultan, Said bin Taimur, came to power, but it took him until 1959 to gain full control of the interior. Said turned Oman into a medieval anachronism, fueling an ever-escalating nationalist rebellion. In 1970, the hermit-like, acquisitive Said was overthrown by his only son, Qaboos, in a bloodless palace coup. Although the British denied any involvement in the coup, the fact that British officers commanded the Oman army at the time seems to tell a different tale. Said spent the rest of his life living in exile in a London hotel, rumoured to have subsisted on a diet of fried Mars Bars.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said quickly set to modernising Oman's semi-feudal economy and repealing his father's oppressive social restrictions. Oman's comparatively modest oil revenues were used to build roads, hospitals and schools, which had all been in short supply. In foreign affairs Qaboos has been quite the maverick, managing to maintain friendly relations with post-revolutionary Iran and diplomatic ties with Egypt after it signed a peace treaty with Israel. In 1993, Qaboos welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in a brief visit to Oman, which remained a supporter of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process through the late 1990s. In 1998, Oman was one of several oil-producing countries that announced slight cuts in output, touching off a rise in oil and petrol prices.

• Pictures

	Crowne Plaze Al-Sawadi P.O. box 747, Barka 320 Sultanate Of Oman TEL: (968) 895545 FAX: (968) 895535
	Two Camels in the Wahibah Desert
	Drinking Omani-coffee with local Omani people in the streets of Barka.
	Swiming in a Oasis near al-Mintirib
	Mosque at Nizwa
	Omani Money (100 Baisa)
	Stuck in the Wahibah desert
	A frankincense tree in the southern Omani Province of Dhofar. From its aromatic gum, some of the most sought after and expensive perfumes are made.
	Young men in Omani traditional dress.
	al-Alam-pales
	Omani coffee (Qahwa) served during the exchange of news in the desert. (Always served with the right hand.)