Nizwa Fort – Part 2 of 2

Views from Nizwa Fort

Quriyat Fort

  This fort is located in the middle of Quriyat which is about an hour from Muscat along the coastal Sur highway.  We only found it by getting lost on the way to the ocean side fort.  Little is posted or written about this fort as most people incorrectly tend to call the small fort on the ocean “Quriyat Fort”.   The fort has a store room, children(s) bedroom, kitchen and master bedroom.  Each room has old artifacts from what would have been in such rooms some 250 years ago.  A quick look at the childrens room  This picture of this piece of pottery is just a reminder that they obviously didn’t have refrigerators back then.  In order to cool beverages, they would place them in such pieces of pottery and hang them on the walls.  Looking down on the well from the roof of the fort  That’s my new friend, Harmen, from Holland, in the corner of the roof there.  Peekaboo! Displaying the rooftop door leading down to the groundfloor  The Indian “watchman” who collects the entrance fee for the fort (500 baisas) and tries to persuade tourists to sign the guestbook.  This last photo was taken by Harmen with his camera but it was so good I just had to steal it, ha!ha! 

Overall, it was quite an interesting visit to Quriyat Fort to get an idea of how Omanis lived about 250 years ago!

Ras Al-Hadd Castle

  Some people ask me whether it’s easy for foreigners with little or no Arabic knowledge to get around Oman.  It is extremely easy as English signs are everywhere to guide the curious traveller.  I, for example, didn’t even know there was a castle at Ras Al-Hadd until I saw this sign while exploring the area!  The castle of Ras Al Hadd marks the easternmost corner of the Arabian Peninsula; the first area of Oman (and the entire Arabian peninsula, for that matter) to be greeted with the sun’s rays!   This restored fort, which is more than 450 years old, was an important site for ancient seafarers.   You don’t see many of these “hazardous to visitors” types of warnings around!    It must not be forgotten that the chief end of such forts was not tourism but defense.  This castle has three towers and a large courtyard and took ten years to build.  I read that the courtyard was big enough to provide shelter for the villagers, who would come inside for protection whenever the town was threatened with invasion.  There is an underground escape tunnel that extends from the largest tower and comes out 200 m away outside the fort into what was then the local village.  The main door (or “gate”) to the castle.  Notice the “door-within-a-door” which is a cool feature on many of the forts of Oman I’ve visited.

Impressive Yet Relatively Unknown Fort of Ibri