Oman – Day Two: Historical Muscat and Low Mountains

Today we popped over to the The National Museum of Oman, in old Muscat. It provided a brief overview of the history of Oman over the last few thousand years, which we were ready to contextualize. Plenty of artifacts from the shipbuilding era along with some nice slick propaganda throwing a bit of shade towards the “upstarts” like Qatar and UAE. They basically dinged them for the non-sustainable growth they’ve been cultivating in the past decade or two. Oman seems to be proud of their slow-growth strategy; you won’t see any buildings over ten stories in the entire country because they’re forbidden by law.

We popped up to some battlements up on the rocks. You can even see another one in the distance on this picture. Every hill along the coast seems to have something built on top of it. A lot of these were built by the Portuguese, who were expelled in 1650. Bunch of hoodlums.

… and this points the other way. I was ready to light the fuse if necessary.

Later in the day, we started a well-known hike up into the craggy hills above Muttrah. The path would partially follow an ancient route that used to be the only way into the town by land. We ascended only a few hundred meters vertically, but steeper than a typical hiking trail that we were accustomed to.

On our way up, the afternoon call to prayer began, which was an amazing experience. The calls, radiating from several mosques, echoed from the town below, up through the steep mountains. Because we could no longer see evidence of modern civilization, our minds were transported back to a magical time of exploration and wonder.

We reached the highest point of the hike about a quarter of the way through, and then descended more gradually. About mid-way, we arrived at an ancient site where there was evidence of a village or long-term encampment. At this point we began to follow the wadi back down towards the town.

As we approached the town, a friendly pair of Muscat residents and their tiny little dog approached from the other direction. We exchanged pleasantries (english) and then they offered us their water — we must have looked a bit bedraggled. We politely declined because we did have some water in our backpack.

After a brief rest, people watching along the Corniche, we headed back to our car, completing the round-trip. Along the way we saw our friends from the trail again, who waved enthusiastically from across the busy main drag.

We also got to watch a cruise ship head to sea. It had to do the back half of a Y-turn, which we caught midway through. This attracted a lot of attention from… well… everyone who wasn’t on the boat. It was playing some sort of launch overture, loudly through the speakers, which was an amusing touch.