If you want to visit the Middle East but want to avoid chaos, Oman is the safest place to be. The country offers more cultural experience compared to the United Arab Emirates and Middle Eastern cities with its architecture, hundred-years-old markets, and religious beliefs. So, explore this Arabian country and know how its fragrance can bring you back through the centuries.
Oman now boasts a new opera house, theater, museum, and Grand Mosque, thanks to Qaboos bin Said al Said's landmark projects. The mosque can now accommodate up to 20,000 worshippers and has five minarets that represent the five pillars of Islam and the need to pray five times a day. The usual minarets are two.
In the Grand Mosque, its main prayer hall holds the world's largest chandelier and second-largest carpet. Its carpet is even an extraordinary work of art made by 600 Iranian women who worked hard for three years to craft its intricate design that contained 1.7 billion knots, per the South China Morning Post.
The Grand Mosque is also made of Italian marble columns that have hidden air conditioning to make the place cooler and calmer amidst Oman's hot temperature. But although the sun's hot glare can burn your skin, the place of worship's covered walkways and gardens outside provide shade. The grounds are filled with white frangipani, jasmine, and hot-pink bougainvillea. Aside from being a beautiful sight, its smell can take you back to centuries and give you a peaceful mind as you escape the noise from the city.
Aside from the Grand Mosque, travelers can also visit one of the country's coastal wilayats, the Wilayat of Muttrah in the Governorate of Muscat. The place is strategically located on the Sea of Oman.
Times of Oman reported Wilayat of Muttrah is bordered on the east by Hillat Muttairah, on the west by the City of Al Qurum, on the north by the Sea of Oman and on the south by the end of Hillat Wadi Udday. Visitors here need to pass the traditional market, which is not your usual kind of shopping area as it tells the city's tradition.
In fact, it is considered as one of the markets in Oman that shows its traditional character. It is a must-see destination for the tourists as they can smell the "fragrance of the ancient past" with its old handicrafts and different produce.
The different smells of perfumes, Omani incense, frankincense and coffee that spread in the market's alleys can tell you centuries of history. As you are just about to discover its past, its fragrance will surely make you crave to know more and return to the city.
