Magic Arabia Tour - Day 3

Today was a busy day, as we had much to see and do. It was delayed slightly by the effect of the rainstorm last night. Ahmed was held up collecting me because the wadi had cut the road. He warned me of the delay on Whatsapp saying, “the wadi is crossing”. I thought he meant that the water was crossing over the road, but I now think he really meant, that the flood was passing, sort of like a herd of buffalo, or something. Anyway, he wasn’t really late by the time he got there and we set off for our trip to Nizwa.

The trip from the Desert Night camp to the highway took about 10 minutes, when last night going in the other direction (including some dune bashing) took nearly an hour! The drive to Nizwa was otherwise unremarkable. As we drove into Nizwa, I was struck again by the architecture, which I quite like, and how the building limit of ~8 stories makes the cities look much more like towns.

We first visited the Nizwa Fort and Castle. The fort is huge and well maintained, in spite of being several hundred years old. The Castle, where the Imam lived while ruling, is over a larger area, but mostly not open for tourists. The fort has all the medieval defenses in place and on display: stout doors, protected by slits through which burning date syrup was poured on attackers, and a murder hole on the inside, if they got through. The stairs up to the top of the keep are zig-zagged and there are several further doors, all triply-protected, as you go up. Inside the fort, there is accommodation for soldiers, a prayer room, access to seven wells, and portholes for 24 cannon. The battlements are lined with archers nooks and arrow slits. A real life example of the forts/keeps described in the history books. And quite difficult to photograph convincingly.

The Nizwa Fort from the street	The courtyard at the top of the keep from atop one battlement staircase
An archer’s position on the battlements showing arrow slits	A view down one of the arrow slits
Another view into the courtyard from the battlements (Ahmed waiting by the Prayer Room, at left)	A diagrammatic view of the fort (being explained by some other tour guide)
Reception room in the adjacent castle where the Imam would receive guests	Trapdoors in the floor where guards would wait hidden in case the Imam was attacked

We travelled from the Nizwa Fort to the Jabreen Castle. This building looked exactly like the sand castles that we used to make as children on the beach – only life-size. It is a glorious ancient building full of magnificent Arabian design features, and necessary castle elements – like underfloor secret passages for guard/soldiers to protect the Imam. The castle is also built so that it draws cool air into and through the building and expels hot air ‘naturally’ – in-built non-mechanical air-conditioning.

Jabreen Castle			The main keep from inside the gate house
The truly massive doors protecting the keep (which also have a drop slit immediately inside)		The keep is only three storeys high – but each storey is over 5m tall		The date store. The channels collect the date syrup that drains from the dates over time; a useful food and weapon
The building is decorated throughout – carved archways		Painted ceilings		Carved doors and door frames
The court room. Guilty people left on all fours through a small door in the rear-left. Crawling is shameful for an Omani man.			The room of the Moon and the Sun. A glorious reception hall, naturally ventilated to always be comfortable. The full moon illuminates the room through the top screens
Jabreen Castle uses under-floor hidden guards too – hence the 5m+ storey height			This decoration, over a stairwell, is a passage from the Qu’ran

From Jabreen Castle we drove to Bahla to view the fort there. Ahmed drove me up to a high vantage point just outside Bahla to see the fort from a distance and also to be able to see the ancient town walls that surrounded Bahla centuries ago.

The Bahla Fort (centre background)

From there, we drove to a hidden valley outside Nizwa that contained the remnants of three old villages, protected by six watch towers, and in which the whole valley floor was covered in date palms. It was a lush, green oasis/forest. Ahmed dropped me off in the palms and I walked about 500m through the orchard/forest (on the made road) really enjoying the ‘forest bathing’.

One of the villages across the valley from an observation point Ahmed drove to	In among the date palms
A new palm as part of the forest management	The remains of an old palm being removed

Nearby, is a UNESCO Heritage site where the Omanis had created a managed water course that travelled over two kilometres to provide constant fresh water for the villages in the valley. According to Ahmed, the water actually rises up as it travels from its source in a set of wells to the valley. I'm not sure how that works and the official sign was silent on that fact. But the aqueduct was clearly old and well-maintained.

Ahmed next to the UNESCO water course/aqueduct			The aqueduct runs on in channels across the village and down to the palm forest
More of the aqueduct		More of the aqueduct		The English version of the official sign about the aqueduct

Our last business before returning to the hotel (we’d driven by it on the way to the hidden valley), was to source some more “Vitamin C drink”. This is a miracle potion that Ahmed introduced to me yesterday. It’s a small carbonated drink that contains vitamin C (and other vitamins I've now discovered reading the label) and Ahmed drinks it occasionally if he’s tired but must continue or is feeling unwell. We’d both had some yesterday to combat our ill-health (him with a running nose brought on by his nieces/nephews and me with the cold) and, frankly, it had worked. I had not struggled with my cold as I went to bed last night, slept well (for a travelling night) and have felt much better all day! We finally found some after visiting the UNESCO water feature and I’m looking forward to its effects making tomorrow and even better day.

The hotel is another extravagant, palatial, resort. The tour may have been expensive at first look, but there’s no doubt I’m travelling in style.