Places

One of N- Al-Batinah's many forts, built from local stone. Small but worth a stop if you're passing through.

This fort sits at a crossroads that was once strategic. Now it's a quiet monument in the middle of Sohar.

Wadi Hibi lies inland from Sohar in North Al Batinah, where a nineteenth century fort with five towers watches over the valley. At its heart sits Al Hajal, a village of mudbrick houses said to be nearly five centuries old, fed by falaj channels that once irrigated dates, bananas and grapes. Fresh water runs through the wadi year round, drawing visitors for swimming, hiking and photography among its natural pools.

Fort Awlad Ya'arab stands on the beach at Al Harmul in the wilayat of Liwa, built from white clay in a style distinct from the better known Liwa Fort nearby. Its architecture, carvings and arches closely resemble those of Sohar Fort, leading historians to date it to more than four hundred years ago. The fort is understood to have once served as the seat of a local wali.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Sohar opened on 28 October 2016 as one of the newest large mosques in the Gulf, built in an Uzbek style recalling the Bibi Khanym Mosque with soaring domes and intricate carving. Its main prayer hall holds forty six hundred worshippers alongside a prayer hall for women that holds seven hundred forty, and four minarets rise over eighty four meters above the one hundred eighty one thousand square meter site, which also houses classrooms, a multipurpose hall, a majlis, and a large public library. It sits a short distance from Sohar Fort on the road toward Dubai, and non Muslim visitors are welcome outside prayer times if dressed modestly.