“The Rock Garden is a 3 square kilometre area of limestone and sandstone rocks which formed in an underground freshwater aquifer over 46 million years ago. With time it has been shaped by wind, water, frost and other natural forces. According to the Minerals Section of the Department of Commerce and Industry.”
“The Rock Garden is one of the top 25 sites of geological scientific importance
in the entire Sultanate of Oman.”
“These rock formations are of exceptional scenic beauty and provide visitors with an impressive insight of the geological and geomorphological wonders of our planet.”
If you’re ever in Duqm with about an hour to spare, you can find the Duqm Rock Garden at the Strabag gate entrance between 100 and 200 metres from the ODC (Oman DryDock) gate (which is also the Veronica Floating Hotel entrance) as you head towards Duqm city centre (…or where there should be a city centre but will find only a few buildings). The rock garden is on the right hand of the Strabag dirtroad. I wouldn’t recommend driving this site without a 4X4.
Click here to read an article in the Week about the Rock Garden in Duqm
“Elephant Rock”
“Turtle Head Rock”
“Licking Dog Rock”
“Snail Rock”
“Smiley face Rock”
Obviously not the top ranking “must see site of Oman”; the tourists aren’t exactly lining up to see the Duqm Rock Garden. I still thought it was interesting to walk around exploring. The heat starts playing tricks on you and you start seeing faces and shapes in just about every rock, haha! 🙂 How about you? Would you walk around in the hot sun for an hour or even longer to see a bunch of rocks?! Or are you more like my wife who would rather sit back and enjoy the comfort of the hotel room?
If this is a subject of great interest to you, I’m guessing you must be a geologist! This link to Peter Farrrington’s presentation at the 4th International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations in Muscat in October 2010 would be very interesting to you I’m sure.
Andy in Oman 