Bee-hive tombs and a place called Jebel Shams
We’re back in Muscat again tonight after spending the last couple of days exploring Nizwa and the surrounding areas. Today we rented a car and saw quite a few things including two forts, the ruins of a village, the so-called ‘Grand Canyon of Arabia’ (which really shouldn’t be given this title as it creates unrealistic expectations) from the top of Jebel Shams, the highest peak in the Arabian Peninsula. But strangely the highlight was seeing some small, ancient bee-hive shaped tombs at the foot of a dramatic mountain. We had been told about the tombs by our Belgian friends in Yemen and promised them that we would try to visit the tombs, and though they were hard to find, they were definitely worth it.
We only had one other thing we wanted to do in Oman which was to hike through another wadi, but Wendy’s leg is hurting a little so we thought we would give it a miss and save ourselves for the High Atlas instead. So, tomorrow we’re leaving Oman, and that’s a good thing as it gives us more time for other countries later on, which we’re very happy about. We’d planned to spend about three weeks here but ended up only staying for one week – I guess there weren’t as many things to do as we had thought! The thing about Oman is that while everything’s nice – nice beaches, nice forts, nice views – nothing is spectacular.
So, while Africa beckons, there’s still one last place to visit before we leave this peninsula (I presume) forever: the grandest of all the oil cities, Dubai.
Tags: Arabia, Oman, Travel
Nick