Driving to....Nizwhat? Part I

Nizwa: capital city of the interior region of Oman, setting of an old historic Ottoman fort (built in 1668), nestled within a mountain range. Nizwa was a major stop along old trading routes, formerly the capital of Oman, and a religious and cultural center. Today's road appears to follow the established trade route from old as we could see many old lookout towers strategically placed on higher hills along the road. These towers were used to spot raiding enemies and to provide for safety as people approached the city.

The fort has been restored, but there are still remnants of ruins around and inside the fort area. In a nearby community is where a lot of Omani pottery is made. While not used today like it once was, they have revived the old processes of making the pottery (with probably a few modern conveniences!). You will see this pottery throughout the fort and in my pictures.

On the way to Nizwa we drove through mountainous scenery. The mountains here are all rock and sand. Some of the rocks are thrust upward somewhat like you see in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma:

The scrub brush greener at the base of the mountains is non-existent or old brown and dead-looking like tumbleweeds in the summer time. It seems to turn green overnight as the temperature cools down. We are much higher in elevation here than at the coast even though it doesn't really feel like it.

Perhaps this gives you a better perspective of the height of the mountains since the tops are in the clouds!

On the way to the fort, we passed many date plantations and green houses. You can identify them by the large number of date palm trees. Dates have been a staple of the Omani people for centuries.

This is actually a small community, as evidenced by the presence of a
mosque, with the palm trees clustered in the center.

This is a really large plantation but it is somewhat hard to tell. See
how the green tree tops stretch almost the entire length of the image?

Finally, we arrived at Nizwa!

This part of the fort has been restored. I'm wearing the floppy hat to protect myself
from the sun--a year-round job here! If you look closely, you can see the
cannons placed in the square view openings around the top of the center of the fort.

See part 2 of Nizwa on my next post!