Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
which was established in 1984 to preserve the country's musical heritage. Oman was the
first Arab country to become part of the International Council for Traditional Music, un-
der Unesco.
Oman's music is diverse, due to the country's seafaring and imperial heritage. The
na-
ham
is a particularly famous call to crew members to pull together during a long sea voy-
age.
Sultan Qaboos is a Western classical-music lover. The Royal Oman Symphony Orches-
tra set up in his honour has been a surprising success, given the difficulties involved in
learning a completely different musical idiom. The opening of the magnificent Royal
Opera House Muscat (
Click here
)
in 2011, to mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary of
the sultan's reign, has enabled the hosting of world-class opera, ballet and classical-music
orchestras from around the world. There is an efficient online reservation system with col-
lection of tickets at the door. The season extends from September to May.
Each branch of the armed forces has a band of international calibre, including the
highly popular bagpipe contingent - no official ceremony in Oman would be the same
without the pipes and drums. The massed bands perform annual tattoos, giving lavish
horse- and camel-back displays. Some of the military bands have regularly participated in
the Edinburgh Tattoo.
Architecture
Oman may no longer boast pillars of gold like the fabled city of Ubar, but it does have an-
other architectural trump card: its forts. There is barely a village without one.
The country has mercifully largely escaped the skyscraping obsession of its neighbours,
settling for more restrained public buildings in keeping with a more modest budget.
However, what the buildings lack in multiple floors, they make up for in imaginative
design. Muscat, in particular, abounds with serene and elegant examples, such as the min-
istry buildings and embassy buildings in Al-Khuwair. The Grand Mosque in Al-Ghubrah,
completed in 2001, is the ultimate expression of restraint, with the simplicity of its exteri-
or masking an exuberantly rich interior.
Not all of Muscat's buildings are grave, however; take the whimsical Grand Hyatt Mus-
cat, with its confection of arabesques and crenulations, or the venerable but distinctly
quirky Al-Bustan Palace Hotel. Whatever individual flights of fancy are indulged in by
the architect, the result is a harmonious affair of whitewashed or sand-coloured buildings
that illustrates a respect for traditional architectural values.
Barasti
(palm-leaf) and other palm-constructed housing is still common along the coast
from Duqm to Shwaymiyah. In the Sharqiya Sands, Bedu use goat-hair tents, and many
