We read in the paper at breakfast that it was the final day of an important camel racing tournament held just outside of Muscat. Scouring the website of the Oman Camel Racing Federation failed to turn up any sort of event schedule, so we just got in the car and drove out to the grounds– until the very final turn, where we realized that 4 wheel drive was more or less a requirement to make it to the stadium; the rented Suzuki Dzire was not going to do it.
So we turned around, and this was as close as we got to any camels:
After the outlawing of child jockeys, robot jockeys are now the standard in the UAE; I’m not sure about Oman, however, so cannot report back for obvious reasons. (News reports on the events seem to report the name of the camel and the owner, but not the jockey; so the jockey seems to be at least considered a nonperson, which is either benign or sinister depending on whether or not they actually are.)
So we went to the opera house instead. The Royal Opera House Muscat opened in 2011. If a survey of history has ever left you with the nagging feeling that democracy is good for many things but impressive buildings is not one of them, the opera house of Muscat would not do anything to counterindicate your hypothesis. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t seem possible to build in the 21st century; in the context of physical infrastructure for Western classical music, in scale it seems like the kind of place must have been build hundreds of years ago and involved a Habsburg. Which is of course more or less the correct context within which to understand it; it exists because Sultan Qaboos was a personal fan of the arts, and is both a performing arts space and a visible demonstration to foreign investors that Oman’s ability to position itself on the world stage. Sultan Qaboos’ personal collection of historical instruments is displayed in the lobby, which includes a few ceramic serpents as well as brass and string instruments, a glass flute, and my personal favourite, this little dude:
This is a pochette, an instrument I had never heard of apparently developed to allow dance masters to have an instrument handy while teaching steps and carry it around in their, well, pochette.
My pictures don’t exactly do the architecture justice, so here are some other ones:
By Khalidalbusaidi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51531638
By Khalidalbusaidi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51560838
At the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Sohar we were the only people there during the visitor hours. At the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Muscat, that was… not the case!
Before visiting the mosque in Sohar I had been somewhat perplexed by a line in the article about it in Oman Magazine stating of the Sohar mosque that “The carpet has a horizontally-lined pattern, which makes it less artistic than the unlined carpet of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Musct, but definitely more practical.” A lined carpet, presumably, keeps people organized while praying; but why was a lined carpet “less artistic” than an unlined one? It turns out “unlined” does indeed mean “without lines,” but not, as I read it, without decoration, so I can confirm that this carpet is indeed the more artistic. In fact, this carpet is the second-largest carpet in the world, weighs 21 tonnes, and took four years to produce.
Now, while it is definitely the first most impressive carpet I have personally seen, that title of second-largest does lead one to ask… and the answer is that the numero uno carpet is at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, a short drive away from our hotel this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
This is also the site of the second-largest chandelier in the world:
and… you’re not gonna believe where the first is…
Archeological evidence indicates that irrigation systems existed in Oman from 2500 BC; here’s one that’s still hard at work today. The water looked really yummy. You ever seen a body of water that made you want to crouch down and slurp? You have now:
Falaj Daris, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Contemplating a good slurp
You need a big fort to protect all that prime irrigated land, which Nizwa has, and has had since the 1650s, when Sultan bin Saif, the second of the Yaruba dynasty of Imams, got the massive fortification and castle done in less time than it’s taking to build the Eglinton Crosstown.
Me in his office
The fort from the outside, which I didn’t get a good picture of because it was getting dark– by Andries Oudshoorn, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6841227
Mike’s natural habitat, the coffee preparing room (not to be confused with the coffee making room)
POV: you are about to get boiling oil dumped on you
Pats please
HELLO, I SAID–
The fort in Sohar
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Sohar, where we were kindly shown around by a woman from their library. Apparently this mosque is more inspired by Persian architechture, as opposed to– well, I guess we’ll find out when we see the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Muscat.
The corniche
A restful canon
Two loud green birbs