Khasab Castle, Oman

Today we where back in Khasab, Oman 🇴🇲, for the last time on this trip, so I decided to have a stroll to the castle.
On the previous two visits here on this trip, I'd been put off going by various people saying, it's very small, not a lot there, blah blah blah.
Well I shouldn't have listened to them.
Firstly it's a beautifully preserved, 17th century Castle , not a reconstruction as I thought. It was built in the 17th century by the Portuguese on top of what was an old fort and has some very well preserved artifacts.
The middle tower which apparently is the oldest part of the castle, houses an air-conditioned room with very informative displays, showing how life was and in some cases still is in Khasab.
On ground level the courtyard displays three old Omani boats that originate from the northern part of Musandam, along with a number of canons and old dhows displayed at the entrance of the fort.
Also in the courtyard are two reconstructions one is a traditional bait al qufl (“house of the lock”) which is a stone construction with a floor below ground level, which the nomadic mountain tribes used to store their valuables that they could not carry with them, on their summer trips down to the sea and a barasti (palm thatch) summer house, ingeniously constructed using stone pillars with permeable walls fashioned out of palm branches.
Which kept the occupants cool in the very hot summer months.
It is a really interesting place and it was very easy to spend an hour or so there, all for the princely sum of 1 Omani Rial, which is about £2.Leggi altro