Discover Oman

Oman occupies the south-eastern corner of the Arabian peninsula, with a long Indian Ocean coastline and, unusually, a detached piece of territory: the Musandam peninsula at the Strait of Hormuz, separated from the rest by the UAE, where the mountains drop straight into fjord-like inlets.

The spine of the country is the Hajar range, rising to over three thousand metres at Jebel Shams above a canyon often compared to the Grand Canyon, with the terraced rose gardens and villages of Jebel Akhdar on its flank. Below it the Batinah coast holds most of the population and Muscat, a capital of low white buildings strung between the mountains and the sea, kept that way by building regulations. Inland are the old capital at Nizwa with its round fort, the mudbrick forts at Bahla and Jabrin, and the wadis — steep valleys with permanent pools that are the country’s best swimming.

The far south is effectively a different country. Dhofar, around Salalah, catches the tail of the Indian monsoon: from late June to September the khareef turns the hills green, mist rolls off the escarpment and waterfalls run, while the rest of Arabia bakes. It is also where the frankincense trees grow. Between the two lie the dunes of the Wahiba Sands and, at Ras al Jinz, one of the most reliable green turtle nesting beaches in the world.