Here are twelve photographs (13, if you count the background image, adapted from a photo of clouds!) from our brief trip up to the very top of Oman—the Musandam Peninsula.

While they're downloading, a bit of info . . .

Musandam, with its spectacular fjords, is the 'Norway' of the Middle East. This northern province is separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates. Barren mountains that rise up to 2,000 meters or 6,500 feet above sea level jut out like fingers into the sea, creating countless inlets and coves.

— from Off-Road in Oman (Heiner Klein and Rebecca Brickson, Motivate Publishing, 1992), page 92.

This first picture is of the road we took up to the principal town of Musadam, Khasab. As you can see, at this point the graded road straddles a ridge, high above valleys on either side.

This is near Jabal Harim (Mt. Harim), the highest point in Musandam. It's used for military purposes, so the road doesn't go over the top, but veers off about 1/4 mile from the summit.

These next two also show what the terrain is like: going through a narrow gorge, at Wadi Khabb Shamsi, and then up towards Jabal Harim.

And to give a little perspective, here is another vehicle, coming our way.

Now to our boat trip . . .

We took a day trip out on the water to get a closer look at the fjords of Musandam—huge chunks of rocks towering over the serene waters and little villages that are only accessible by boat.

One of the striking geological features of these mountains is all the twisting and turning they've gone through over the years, as shown here:

At the base here is the small village of Seebi, located at the end of Khawr ash Shamm, one of Musandam's most scenic fjords. (Actually, that's the only fiord we saw that day, as it'd take quite a long time to navigate around the others as well.) People here in Seebi—as in the other villages dotting the banks of Musandam's fjords—generally rely on fishing to make ends meet. They normally sell, or trade, their catch a few days a week in town (Khasab), and of course live a very hardy life. Although the government has managed to get electricity to most of them (quite an accomplishment, given the terrain), and brings in fresh water a few times a week, too, people's lives here in these remote villages have generally changed little over the years. (You can bet not a lot of them were worried about the so-called Y2K bug!)

Moving on...

A traditional, picturesque old dhow (not unlike the one we were on), plying the waters of Khawr ash Shamm:

Interesting rock formations and old boats aren't the only things we saw that day...

Early on, about 20 minutes outside of Khasab and just as we pulled into the fjord (Khawr ash Shamm), we found a number of aquatic friends, ready and willing to race us for a while:

At first, we saw just a few, then three or four, then, in the distance, we saw that there were actually up to eight—maybe more—dolphins hanging out in that area. Definitely a high point of the trip!

And here we are approaching Jazirat Maqlab, better known to westerners as Telegraph Island.

The tiny island, if you could call it that, got its name from being used as a telegraph cable station in the 1860s linking western India with Basra, Iraq.

Just a few more photos to go. Now we're back on dry land...

This is a nice cove, about 10 miles south of Khasab, just off the road leading down the west coast of Musandam, eventually leading to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. At this point, though, there are few settlements—mostly just a (fairly new) paved road hugging the scenic coastline, deep blue and green water on one side, steep cliffs immediately on the other. You can see why there are no sandy beaches for camping! The few beaches in the Musandam (and snorkeling sites) are accessible by boat only.

This is where Karen spotted a Grey Heron on the rocks on the other side—a good find! The Musandam is a great place for birds—we also saw an Eastern Pied Wheatear, a White-Collared Kingfisher and a Western Reef Heron.

And on our way back down the Musandam, far away from any water (although January certainly is the time for it to rain and flood up there; luckily, we saw none of it), we came upon this mountain with this patch of sun-baked mud in the foreground.

Who knows? Right now it could be raining cats & dogs, and this valley floor could be filled with fast-moving water. Of course, one doesn't want to get caught in that kind of weather. We've heard of people being stranded up there for days, waiting for the rain and flooding to stop. As there's often only one road between most of these places, a flood cuts off all movement for as long as it lasts. We can't claim any hair-raising experiences along those lines. We just had a pleasant, if somewhat uneventful, ride through a pretty—and sparsely populated—part of Arabia, and hope you've enjoyed our little virtual slide show.

Thanks for stopping by! If you've any comments (or would just like to write to us), of course we'd be delighted to hear from you! And please come back to our main photos page in the coming weeks for more photos and commentary from this part of the globe.

Thanks again!

This page was created on January 11, 2000.