Muscat & the Batinah Coast

The Batinah coast is one of the oldest settled parts of Oman. Copper mined in the hills of northern Oman is thought to have supplied Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC, when the region was known as Magan, and falaj channels carried mountain water to date gardens along the plain. By the 10th century Sohar was one of the richest ports of the Gulf, importing spices and timber from India, and Omani tradition links it to the voyages of Sinbad.

Muscat itself was a small harbour until the Portuguese seized it in 1507. They fortified the cove with the forts of Jalali and Mirani in the late 16th century and held the coast until 1650, when the Ya'ariba imams, whose dynasty first ruled from Rustaq in the Batinah foothills, drove them out. In the 1740s Ahmad bin Said, governor of Sohar, expelled Persian forces and founded the Al Bu Said dynasty; his successors moved the capital from Rustaq to Muscat in the late 18th century, and from here the sultans ran an empire reaching Zanzibar.

After Qaboos bin Said took power in 1970 the capital spread along the coast from Seeb to Qurum, while the Batinah highway, Sohar's new port and industrial zone, and a university in Sohar transformed the north coast. Sohar was also the centre of Oman's 2011 protests over jobs and corruption.

This is Oman's most mixed region. Muscat and the Batinah towns hold communities descended from Baloch soldiers and settlers, from families who returned from Zanzibar and East Africa and still speak Swahili, and from the Lawati, a Shia merchant community whose walled quarter stands on the Mutrah seafront. Sunni, Shia and Ibadi mosques stand within a few streets of each other, and Hindu and Christian communities worship openly in Muscat.

The capital sets the national tone: the white dishdasha and embroidered kummah in offices, the Royal Opera House, opened in 2011, and the Muscat Festival's winter programme of craft stalls, music and food. Along the Batinah the older habits of the plain survive, above all bull-butting, a contest in which two bulls push against each other in a sandy ring until one gives way, held at Barka and other coastal towns. Fishing villages still beach their boats on the sand.

Craft is concentrated in the souqs: silver khanjars, frankincense burners and pottery in Mutrah, and weaving and date-palm work in the villages. Visitors are greeted with kahwa and dates in homes and even in some shops, and Friday remains a family day, with picnics on the beaches of Qurum and Seeb.

Muscat governorate has around 1.3 million people, and together with the Batinah plain it holds about half of Oman's people, making this by far the most populated part of Oman. The capital is not one city but a string of districts between the mountains and the sea: Old Muscat with the palace and ministries, the harbour town of Mutrah, the business district of Ruwi, embassy-lined Al Khuwair, the beach suburb of Qurum and the fast-growing suburbs of Bawshar and Seeb near the airport.

Government employment, oil and gas company offices, retail and services dominate the capital, and much of the workforce is from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. On the Batinah, Sohar and its port and free zone host steel, aluminium and petrochemical plants, and towns such as Barka, Suwaiq, Saham and Shinas combine farming, fishing and commuting. Jobs for young Omanis, housing costs in the capital and the push to replace foreign workers with nationals are the everyday issues.

The day starts early to beat the heat. Offices close in the early afternoon, shops reopen in the evening, and after sunset families walk the Mutrah Corniche, fill the malls or sit in coffee shops, with Thursday nights the busiest of the week.

The coast eats fish above all, from sardines to kingfish, and mashuai — a whole kingfish spit-roasted and served with lemon rice — is a classic Omani dish. Majboos, spiced rice cooked with meat, chicken or fish, is the everyday main dish, and kebabs, skewers of spiced meat grilled over charcoal, are sold on street corners and at festival stalls in the evening.

The long South Asian connection shows in every street: biryani, dal and parathas in Ruwi's cafés, and Omani cooking as a whole draws on Indian spices and marinades.

The Batinah plain is farming country, with date gardens watered by falaj channels. Halwa, the dense sweet served with kahwa and dates, is made across the region, and Barka is especially known for it. Kahwa, the cardamom coffee, and fresh fruit juices are the drinks of choice, and alcohol is limited to licensed hotel bars.

In Muscat, the Mutrah Corniche curves round the harbour past dhows to the covered Mutrah souk, a warren of frankincense, silver, spice and textile stalls. A few kilometres east, walled Old Muscat holds Al Alam Palace between the forts of Jalali and Mirani, the Bait al Zubair museum and the National Museum. Westwards lie the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the Royal Opera House and the beaches of Qurum.

The coast road south-east from the capital passes Qurayyat and reaches the Bimmah sinkhole, a collapsed limestone hollow holding turquoise water in a small park near the shore, before continuing along the cliffs towards Sur. Offshore from Seeb and Barka, the Daymaniyat Islands nature reserve is visited by boat for snorkelling and diving among turtles and coral.

Inland, the Batinah foothills hold some of Oman's finest forts. Nakhal fort rises on a rock above its palm oasis, with warm springs at Ain Thowarah nearby; Rustaq has a massive fort of the Ya'ariba imams and hot springs of its own, and the nearby castle of Al Hazm holds old Portuguese and Spanish cannon. On the north coast, Sohar's white fort and seafront recall its seafaring past, while Barka's fort and the fishing towns strung along the Batinah coast show everyday life on the plain.