Facts at a Glance
Full country name: Sultanate of Oman
Area: 212,500 sq km (82,000 sq mi)
Population: 2.3 million
Capital city: Muscat (population 380,000)
People: Arab, Indian, Persian, Baluchi
Languages: Arabic, English, Farsi, Baluchi, Urdu
Religion: Ibadi Muslim (75%), Sunni Muslim, Shiite Muslim, Hindu
Government: Sultanate
Head of State: Sultan Qaboos bin Said
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.
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.
Arabic is the official language of Oman, though English is widely spoken in business circles. In the northern coastal areas you can find traders and sailors and a large number of expatriates from the Indian subcontinent who also speak Farsi and Urdu. Most Omanis are Ibadi Muslims, belonging to one of Islam's earliest fundamentalist movements. The Ibadi are distinguished by their conservative doctrine and their system of hereditary rule.
Despite the modern appearance of much of Oman, the country remains intensely traditional. In the countryside hamlets and coastal villages, day-to-day life has changed little in centuries. Men can frequently be seen sporting bright blue, loose-fitting, floor-length shirt-dresses called dishdashas, often with a curved khanjar knife dangling from the waist. Women's dress is far more colourful than the simple black cloaks common in much of the rest of the Gulf region. Bright printed dresses are wrapped with even more colourful shawls and veils.
Oman has devoted a great deal of effort to preserving its traditional arts, dance and music, though you're more likely to see traditional dancing staged in a museum than spontaneously breaking out in a village street. Oman is particularly known for its curved, silver-sheathed khanjar knives and silver jewellery.
There is little in the way of traditional Omani cuisine; Indian-style curry is pretty much the national dish. The typical menu is little more than whatever curry the cook decided to make that day, but it is usually pretty good, especially in the myriad small restaurants of Muscat and Salalah. Alcohol is only available in larger hotels and expensive restaurants.
Money & Costs
Currency: Omani riyal (OR)
Relative costs:
- Budget room: US$20-40
- Moderate hotel: US$80-100
- Top-end hotel: US$100 and upward
- Budget meal: US$1-10
- Moderate restaurant meal: US$10-20
- Top-end restaurant meal: US$20 and upward
Costs in Oman fall mainly into the budget and top-end categories; there's next to nothing in the middle. Those wishing to travel comfortably can expect to shell out for the ritzier hotels and eat sumptuously for relatively little; budget US$150-200 a day or more. Travellers who want to spend moderately will have a hard time of it. Good food can be very inexpensive, but accommodation is either cheap and unappealing or good but expensive; expect to spend at least US$100-120 a day if you stay in a decent place. Budget travellers who don't mind cramped, somewhat dingy accommodation can make up for it with lots of excellent, inexpensive food, though they're still likely to spend at least US$50 a day. Beds and swanky eateries aside, domestic travel and food are very cheap and admission to museums, forts and other places of interest is generally free.
Banks and moneychangers will change cash and travellers' cheques. ATMs are widespread, though few of them appear to be tied into international systems.
Tipping is not expected in cheaper eating places while more expensive restaurants tend to add a 10-15% service charge to all bills - which goes to the house and not the staff. There's a 15% hotel tax. Most prices are fixed, meaning the only things you can expect to haggle over will be souvenirs in the souk (bazaar). Even in the souk, however, bargaining can be a frustrating experience. Shopkeepers tend to offer a small discount on the marked price and then refuse to budge. If you try to bargain for the cost of a taxi, you will inevitably pay two or three times what you ought to.
Oman's capital enchants visitors in a way that no other city in the Gulf can even begin to match. Maybe it's because Muscat doesn't have that slightly artificial feel which typifies so much of the rest of the region. Muscat, Mutrah and Ruwi are the capital's core districts. Muscat, the old port area, is the site of the sultan's main palace and a fascinating place to wander around, but it has few shops and, except for the old city walls, it isn't exactly bursting with sights. Mutrah, 3km (2mi) north-west of Muscat, is the main trading and residential port area. A few kilometres inland from Muscat and Mutrah lies Ruwi, the capital's modern commercial district.
There are three forts in Muscat, all of which took on their more or less present form in the 1580s during the Portuguese occupation of Muscat. Mutrah Fort sits on a hill while Jalali and Mirani forts guard the entrance to Muscat. All of the forts are still used by the police and/or military and are closed to the public, but it's okay to photograph them. Muscat has by far the best aquarium in the Gulf. All of the specimens on display are native to Omani waters and most are accompanied by thorough descriptions in English. The Oman Museum, in the Medinat Qaboos, west of Muscat, covers the entire sweep of Oman's 5000-year history. There are also a displays on shipbuilding, Islam and fort architecture. In Ruwi, the National Museum has sparkling displays on Omani silverwork, and the Sultan's Armed Forces Museum, in the Bait al-Falaj fort, has an excellent outline of Omani history.
You could easily spend a day in Mutrah. Start off early at the fish market, then head down to the souk for a cup of tea and a wander around the most interesting bazaar in Arabia. To the east, a restored watchtower looks out over Mutrah. The climb is steep and involves more than 100 steps, but the view from the top is worth it.
Batinah Coast
Oman's northern coastal strip can easily occupy a good two or three days. Barka, about 80km (50mi) west of Muscat, has a fort and a restored house that gives you an idea of how wealthier Omanis lived several generations ago. Sohar, a good 150km (90mi) further up the coast, is the home port of the fictional Sinbad the sailor, and one of those places where history casts a shadow over modern reality. A thousand years ago it occupied three times its present area and was the largest town in the country. Sohar Fort is a large, whitewashed rectangle with a single tower rising from its courtyard. It's a dramatic sight after the earth-coloured forts that predominate in Oman.
Inland from Barka, the nondescript town of Nakhal, with its dramatic fort, gives way to the lush spring known as A'Thorwarah. The spring emerges into a wadi here to form a stream and small oasis, a perfect place for a stroll and a picnic. Some 175km (108mi) west of Muscat, Rustaq is best known for its imposing fort, though for a time in the Middle Ages it was Oman's capital.
Musandem Peninsula
Separated from the rest of Oman by the east coast of the UAE, the Musandem Peninsula is a rugged, starkly beautiful region of fjords, small villages and dramatic, mountain-hugging roads. It is not a particularly easy place to travel; paved roads are few and public transport is patchy and expensive.
The capital, Khasab, is a small but bustling port, largely occupied with smuggling US cigarettes to Iran. Khor Najd is the only one of the Musandem's fjords that can be reached by conventional vehicle, but be warned it's still very steep. Kumzar, set on an isolated cove at the peninsula's northern edge, is only accessible by boat.
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