Atmospheric abandoned villages, a deep canyon in the mountains, and a spectacular wadi gorge.
About 20km north of Nizwa this ruined, mud brick village at the foot of Jebel Akhdar is gradually collapsing back into the landscape. It was bombed by the RAF at the request of the sultan during the Jebel War in the late fifties. The interior had risen up against the sultan in an attempt to be recognised as an independent state ruled by an Imam. The sultan fought back, not least because the country's oil deposits were being investigated principally in the interior.
It's a very atmospheric place which we had to ourselves as Kareem drove the car to the other side so that we could spend some time wandering.
The tallest mountain in Oman at 3009m, Jebel Shams means "Mountain of the Sun", because it is the first peak that the sun strikes at sunrise.
We drove up the mountain and walked along the rim of the so-called "Grand Canyon" of Oman, its steep cliff sides dropping over 1000m to the floor of Wadi Ghul.
It was extremely windy so we had to be very careful walking along the rim, though there is a fence along the edge some of the way.
We actually drove along the floor of both Wadi Ghul and Wadi Nakhr - Kareem, our guide, absolutely loves off-road driving and this was one of his favourites. It was another exhilarating drive!
Wadi Ghul stretches north from the abandoned village of Ghul, morphing into Wadi Nakhr beneath the steep slopes of Jebel Shams.
Huge boulders and soaring rock walls, 7km to the abandoned village of Nakhr. There used to be three families living here, now the houses have been converted into a guest house. Rather an odd place to choose to stay, but a really stunning canyon.
This is a very old village, nestling at the foot of Jebel Shams. The historic part of the village is still very much inhabited and when we visited we could see a lot of renovation going on.
Bait al Saifa is a three hundred year old house which has been beautifully restored and is open as a museum.
A visit there was very interesting with explanations of the different rooms and demonstrations of traditional activities such as the using of domestic mill stones to grind grain to make flour, and how this is turned into the dough for flat bread.
We had plenty of time to explore the maze of rooms, it would be quite easy to lose your bearings as one room opens from another in a very haphazard fashion.
