DESTINATION ONE | MUSCAT
Thoroughly Modern Muscat Oman’s prosperous capital impresses business and leisure travelers. BY SHARON KING HOGE
Monumental Sights: Muscat waterfront (left), and a giant frankincense burner built on a hill above Riyam Park (right) PHOTOS: © REJI ITTIACHAN | DREAMSTIME.COM, © NAPA735 | DREAMSTIME.COM
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ituated on the Arabian Peninsula, often amid Middle East chaos and turmoil, Oman manages to maintain a countenance of decorum and civility. Evading military clashes between its neighboring states, it implemented long-range plans for development and emergence. Much of the activity focuses on its capital city, Muscat. Lying between the El Hajar Mountains and the Arabian Sea, Muscat serves as the seat of the country’s political, administrative and economic systems and home to a third of the country’s 4.5 million
globaltravelerusa.com MARCH 2021
residents. With its proximity to the sensitive Strait of Hormuz, Muscat proved a historically important trading port in the Gulf of Oman, attracting foreign tradesmen and settlers who came to trade in fishing and agriculture. Persians, Spaniards and Ottomans were among overseas travelers to ancient Muscat, admired as “very elegant” by a 16th-century Portuguese writer. Muscat’s sprawling 1,400 square miles divide into three principal urban areas: Muscat proper, the original settlement and now an enclave of restored historic homes and buildings; waterfront Mutrah, the
