Oman

Oman sits in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, facing the Gulf of Oman to the northeast and the Arabian Sea to the southeast, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen as land neighbours. At about 315,331 square kilometres it is the third-largest country on the peninsula, home to roughly 5.4 million people. Muscat is both the capital and the largest city, and Arabic is the official language. In the far north, the Musandam governorate is cut off from the rest of the country by Emirati territory and looks out over the Strait of Hormuz.

The Hajar Mountains split the north into a coast and an interior, running from the tip of Musandam all the way to Sur. They hold Jebel Shams, the country's highest peak at 3,009 metres, and the Jebel Akhdar with its plateau and terraced orchards. Valleys and desert cover 82 percent of the land, mountains 15 percent and the coastal plain a mere 3 percent. In this dry country, aflaj — ancient channels that carry water from springs and aquifers — have watered villages and palm groves for centuries.

Muscat is a low, white city squeezed between sea and mountains. Its landmarks include the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, completed in 2001 with a 90-metre main minaret, the Royal Opera House, which opened in 2011, and the old Muttrah waterfront with its souq. Some 140 kilometres inland lies Nizwa, with its round-towered fort and busy market, and close by stands Bahla Fort, the first Omani site added to the World Heritage List, in 1987.

On the east coast, Sur has been building wooden ships for generations, and about 60 kilometres away green turtles come ashore to nest at Ras al-Jinz, the easternmost point of the Arabian Peninsula. Inland, the Sharqiya Sands spread over 12,500 square kilometres, with the pools and boulders of Wadi Bani Khalid nearby. Far to the south, the Dhofar mountains around Salalah turn green during the khareef monsoon from June to September, and the region holds the Land of Frankincense World Heritage sites. At the other end of the country, the sea pushes deep between Musandam's mountains in long, fjord-like inlets.

Winter, from December to February, is the time for the north, with temperatures between 18 and 26°C; the hot season runs from March to September. Salalah works the other way round: its season is summer, when the khareef brings mist and drizzle. The currency is the Omani rial, divided into 1,000 baisa, and the clock runs on UTC+4. Oman has five World Heritage sites, all cultural: Bahla Fort, the archaeological sites of Bat, Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn, the Land of Frankincense, the aflaj irrigation systems and the ancient city of Qalhat.[1,2,14,13,16,4,6,7,5,10,12,17,18,24,25,26,27,30,33,36,3]Source1. Oman · Wikipedia2. Geography of Oman · Wikipedia14. Jebel Shams · Wikipedia13. Jebel Akhdar (Oman) · Wikipedia16. Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman · Wikipedia4. Muscat · Wikipedia6. Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque · Wikipedia7. Royal Opera House Muscat · Wikipedia5. Muttrah · Wikipedia10. Nizwa · Wikipedia12. Bahla Fort · Wikipedia17. Sur, Oman · Wikipedia18. Ras al-Jinz · Wikipedia24. Sharqiya Sands · Wikipedia25. Wadi Bani Khalid · Wikipedia26. Salalah · Wikipedia27. Khareef · Wikipedia30. Land of Frankincense · Wikipedia33. Khasab · Wikipedia36. Omani rial · Wikipedia3. Oman — World Heritage properties · UNESCO World Heritage Centre