In Oman, a fragrant journey back through the centuries reveals the Middle East’s intoxicating appeal
- A safe haven for visitors to a fraught region, Oman is one of the Middle East’s most underrated destinations
- More authentic than the glitzy UAE, the country’s souks offer a bewildering array of trinkets and souvenirs
A towering testament to faith, it is visible across the city of Muscat, but the Omani capital’s huge Grand Mosque also makes a striking impact on another sense. Competing fragrances – jasmine, bougainvillea and frangipani – hang in the air across the manicured grounds and gardens of the mosque, as they do across much of this country.
Jutting out into the Arabian Sea, Oman is larger than many visitors realise, being only slightly smaller in total land area than Vietnam or Finland. While the southern border, with Yemen, should be avoided for the time being, for obvious geopolitical reasons, Oman is a safe destination that offers a more cultural experience than that to be found amid the glitz and bling of the United Arab Emirates and most Middle Eastern cities.
The capital’s new opera house, theatre and museum, as well as the Grand Mosque, are all landmark projects that have been instigated by the world’s third-longest-serving monarch, Qaboos bin Said al Said.
The Grand Mosque can accommodate up to 20,000 worshippers and was opened in 2001. Mosques usually have one or two minarets, but this one has five, representing the five pillars of Islam and the requirement to pray five times a day. Inside, the main prayer hall boasts both the world’s largest chandelier and second-largest carpet, the latter an extraordinary work of art that took 600 Iranian women three years to craft and contains, so we are told, 1.7 billion knots.
