Local history and culture Oman

We get up early, like the Omanis: no good trading in hot weather. The huge car park already sets the tone with its dozens of vans filled with goats, sheep and cows. In Nizwa, every Friday, cattle are haggled over! In the centre of the square, seated in a circle, a host of potential buyers watch as sellers parade past, tethering their cattle, waiting to be accosted. Everything happens very quickly and you have to exercise your neophyte's eye to try to understand the ritual of negotiation: an interested buyer asks for the price of the animal as the seller passes by and sometimes waits several turns before starting a negotiation, always quite fast and accompanied by a check of the good vitality of the animal (state of the teeth, stomach, legs). Buzzing of commercial conversations, alpine pastures, haggling, in the smell of cattle and the colours of the East. Each end of the square is a scene of life, almost a painting: old nomads with dull eyes, almost blinded by the sun, men in traditional costumes with their hands on sticks, rare Bedouin women with faces protected by a burqa. The deep and traditional sultanate: the spectacle of real life, a cultural plunge into a part of everyday life amidst the dust raised by the hooves of animals. Don't forget your camera for great shots, especially of faces, and take advantage of the hustle and bustle to capture attitudes without ever being pushy.

The main entrance to the souk opens onto the cornice, to the left of the great blue mosque as you head towards Old Muscat. With your eyes closed, you are sure to arrive safely following the heady scent of incense! The main street of the market, entirely covered like the rest of the spaces, quickly splits in two. On each side, alleys full of all kinds of goods leave. Those that run to the right lead to the jewellery sector and its display cases of necklaces, bracelets, pendants, in silver and solid gold. Immediately after the entrance, still on the right, stands the corner of perfumes and pashminas. When you leave the central axis to the left, it is the area of poetic bric-a-brac. At the far end are the garment stalls. The atmosphere isn't intrusive, the salespeople just encourage you to come in without ever chasing you. Aboriginals and tourists rub shoulders in a good mood. First necessity purchases for some, superfluous for others, the possibilities are not lacking: from a pair of sneakers to old chests, through spices, jewellery, kandjars, pottery and various handicrafts. The stroll can be pleasantly prolonged, not to mention the time spent haggling for a "good price", a vague and rather arbitrary concept. Even if one has nothing to buy, the place is worth the detour for its very oriental atmosphere, its painted ceilings, its sometimes decorated beams, its scenes of life.

Even though Sur now only produces one or two dhows a year, Indian workers here repair the famous boats that have made the reputation and prosperity of the city since the first millennium BC. The two most popular models at that time were the baggala and the ghanja. Today, the tradition continues in the rules of art, and the ghanjas, smaller sailing boats, are still built according to ancestral methods, caulking being done with shark fat and plaster. Electrical instruments are used to cut the dhows, which six workers manage to complete in 5 months at an average cost of 40,000 OMR. The shipyards also produce Sharks, slender wooden boats that can be rowed like skiffs or outriggers. Specific to Sur, these boats are used every year in February, on Special Day, for extremely popular races. If you continue along the road along the lagoon, you will see a magnificent example of a dhow built in Sur more than seventy years ago, which has now emerged from the water and is erected on the ground like a statue or rather a museum witness of the past: the Fatah al-Khair. If it is not possible to get on board to visit the interior, it is interesting to approach the sides of the boat to observe the finishing touches. Traditionally, ships were made by hand, without nails, and hand-woven ropes were used to strengthen the joints.

The particularity of the Birkat al Mawz falaj, along with four other Omani aflaj, is that it is classified on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Aflaj is the plural of the word falaj and means "divide into shares" in Arabic. This typical Omani irrigation system was invented 4,500 years ago to distribute water as equitably as possible among the inhabitants. It is based on notions of community and mutual dependence, and is guided in part by astronomical observations. The oldest ruins found on the territory date back to 500 AD. The principle is quite simple: water circulates by gravity over tens of kilometres from underground springs to houses and cultivated land. In the past, each falaj had watchtowers to protect it, as well as mosques and other buildings. That of Birkat al Mawz is marked by a stone stele with explanations in French near the fort. The overall layout shows that the falaj comes down from the mountain and was, at the time, built in such a way that the first to use it was the governor of the region. Park in the car park in front of the stele and climb a few steps. At the top of these is a small mosque on the right, built in 1649, very simple and without a minaret. A stroll along the falaj leads through the now abandoned old village and its oasis of date palms. To make a loop, return to the parking lot by the main road.

It is one of the prettiest places in the Akhdar jebel, not too crowded so far. Staircases have been installed, to the left and right of the car park. Preferably take the ones on the right, they lead to the bottom of the wadi, incredibly green and lush. Walk in the wadi for a hundred meters: on either side of the dry river bed grow multiple fruit trees or not, protected by dry stone walls. Climb a few big stone steps on the right to reach the lower part of the first village; particularly scenic, the latter is literally hung on the mountain walls, a landscape that is well worth a photo. The hamlet is no longer inhabited and its houses, although fairly well preserved, are not very stable. It is pleasant to walk around and enjoy the coolness of the old walls, but beware of the risk of landslides. The walk continues down the wadi for about 200 meters until you reach a preserved mosque, but forbidden to tourists. 50 meters after the mosque, climb the steps of the stone staircase on the right to reach a second abandoned village, also perched high up, and from which the view of the first hamlet is worth the detour. At the top and at the back of the few houses and alleys, the view plunges on a second river bed, as if parallel to the first one and planted with as many crops. The walk is preferable at the end of the day when the evening light iridesces the ochre of the old facades. Return to the parking lot by the same way.

Emblematic of the cultural landscape of Dhofar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wadi Dawkah is the perfect illustration of the incense biosphere: a wadi draining northwards at the edge of the desert with incense trees scattered over a flat area of about 5 km². The higher areas of the park are largely populated by acacia and similar species, capable of withstanding the most extreme conditions. The Boswellia sacra is here in its limestone kingdom, a small deciduous tree of 2 to 8 meters in height, whose paper-like bark peels easily. Only the male tree produces the precious resin, but it takes a good ten years for it to provide a product of the best possible quality. The bark is incised by removing a long, narrow strip, then the area is scraped clean, and the gum-resin concretions are collected by dropping them into a container. The resin secretions, hardened by contact with air, are collected two to three weeks later; these solidified drops can be more than 2 cm long. A mature tree generally produces 3 to 4 kg of incense per season. On site, a shelter with benches allows to observe the landscape while remaining in the shade.

Other associated sites classified by Unesco under the title "Land of incense": the port of Khor Rori (40 km east of Salalah), that of Al Baleed (on the seafront in Salalah) and the city-oasis of Ubar/Shisr at 170 km from the city in the Rub Al Khali desert.