In retrospect, we can confess that Muscat is one of the most beautiful capital cities we have seen. Old Muscat is surrounded by mountains on the Indian Ocean. Due to its location in the mountains by the sea, it would not be possible to accommodate all the institutions here. Therefore, Muscat consists of several districts that are connected by an excellent road system. All of these areas are very clean and are always interspersed with beautiful green spaces and flowerbeds.
From our location at the Greek restaurant Thalassos, we walk along the “Corniche” (coastal road) to the center of Mutrah. The harbor is usually home to the Sultan of Oman’s two huge yachts, which are the size of small cruise ships. Flowerbeds and fountains adorn the sidewalk. Two days later, there are even two really big cruise ships in the harbor and crowds of people pour over Mutrah and Muscat. We are grateful to have taken this walk two days earlier.
After a long time, we once again plunge into a souk, the souk of Mutrah, which is still reasonably authentic. We understand the pushiness of the vendors who offer us goods every few meters. They live from selling and not from our photos. But we simply don’t need anything, which is why we are busy waving goodbye and saying thank you. But that’s not quite true. In one of the stores, we buy a model of an Omani ship to display at home as a travel trophy.
Old Muscat is located south of Mutrah, behind the next mountain and is now the administrative district and Sultan’s Palace. The old fortress and the administrative buildings are well worth seeing. In front of the palace there is a large square where a group of Chinese women are bustling about. I speak to the tour guide and this time there is a nice response from these Chinese women, who usually just look at you strangely, as if you were an alien. No, this group isn’t like that at all, they are even up for a bit of mischief and like having their photo taken. We enjoy such contacts. They are like little highlights in the course of a day. Yes, and for the first time in my life I have a Chinese woman on my arm 🙂
Today we visit the Knowledge Museum. The main topic is: “what is energy” – “energy is not visible” and in a second part, oil management in Oman is presented, where you can learn about different qualities of oil, for example.
The museum is no longer brand new, but the part about energy in particular is made interactive with lots of practical exercises, so that by the end of the visit you have a clear idea of what energy is and how it behaves.
We then visit the “nature garden”, which is now equipped with so many bouncy castles and children’s play castles that there is not much left of nature.
We want to go to the Muscat Opera House and stumble into the “Royal Opera House of Musical Arts” first. Here we can visit an exhibition on former formative artists, which is free of charge. And the exhibition is so multimedia and AI-driven that it’s a real joy and fun. We are very impressed to see how locals can experience the formative artists of the past with such fervor.
The two building complexes are connected by a glazed passageway. In front of the opera house, you pass through a luxury shopping center that is attached to the opera house.
The opera house and the garden around it are enormous. Omani architectural style combined with modern elements. Plus the finest technology. For example, the organ can be moved towards the auditorium for organ concerts. The orchestra pit can be hydraulically converted into additional rows of seats, and side boxes can be automatically retracted to make room for a larger stage area. Honestly, we would like to experience a great opera here. No problem, even if it is in Arabic, because every seat has a monitor on which the translation is displayed. We leave the area again, completely enthralled.
Ruby from South Africa renews my perm. She’s very pleasant and because we know South Africa a bit, we can talk straight away. We’ll see how well the perms hold, though. After the hairdresser, Verena realizes that Ruby didn’t do a perm in the back, she just cut my hair. Yes, and we now know that the perm didn’t last, which is why I went back to Dubai for treatment.
In 1992, the then Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said Al Said, ordered that his country should have a Grand Mosque. In 1993, a competition was held for the design of the planned mosque. The company Carillion Alawi LLC was awarded the contract for the construction.
The construction of the mosque took six years and seven months.
The mosque consists of different types of stone, with doors, windows and decorations made of wood and glass. Around 300,000 tons of Indian sandstone were imported for the construction. Five minarets were erected on the grounds of the mosque: The main minaret (90 meters high) and the four flanking minarets (45.5 meters high) are the main visual features of the mosque from the outside. The prayer hall is square and has a central dome that rises up to 50 meters above the ground. The main musalla can accommodate over 6500 worshippers, while the women’s musalla can hold 750 worshippers. The outer paved floor can accommodate 8,000 worshippers, and there are additional seats in the inner courtyard and aisles to accommodate up to 20,000 worshippers in total.
Once again, we are mainly fascinated by the gardens around the mosque. Unfortunately, we are a little late and the inside of the mosque is closed right under our noses. Too bad, but we can live with that. Many, very many tourists visit the mosque, which was inaugurated in May 2001 to mark the 30th anniversary of the reign of Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
