Follow Bettany Hughes on a journey of discovery from mountain summits to the ocean, taking in glorious oases and saffron-coloured deserts
Bettany Hughes’s Treasures of the World Saturday 7.30pm C4
Ed Grenby - 24 March 2023
The sun floats gently down towards the horizon; the heat haze mellows to a pleasing warmth; the first stars appear; and across this timeless landscape, I hear the melancholy but compelling voices of a thousand muezzins echo from minarets, calling the faithful, as they have for centuries, to cocktails. No, wait, that’s not right. Or is it? Of all the destinations historian Bettany Hughes visits in her series, it’s Oman (focus of next week’s episode, but available now on All 4) that offers the perfect balance between exotic, Indiana Jones-y adventure and easy-breezy, Bridget Jones-y jaunt. In fact, the joy of a break in Oman is that you get all the ancient Arabia you could want – and Hughes finds fascinating evidence of a 5,000-year-old civilisation – right there alongside all that nice holiday stuff. You know: great hotels, amazing beaches, effortless infrastructure and, yes, a few drinks (with a caveat for LGBTQ+ travellers that you’re in a Muslim country and will need to be discreet). In fact, Muscat has beaches better than any capital city has a right to, and I spend my first day in Oman planted firmly beneath a palm on one of them (most hotels have their own semiprivate stretch), imbibing Arabic culture in addictively relaxing, peach-scented shisha form. The next day, it’s deliciously easy to knock off the major sights and be back in time for (cardamom) tea.
The must-sees, even if you’re only stopping over in Oman for a day en route elsewhere, are the Grand Mosque and the gleamingly new National Museum. The former is a divinely graceful complex of courtyards, arches, domes and those fairy-tale minarets, all in an elegantly minimalist white stone that belies the Gulf ’s reputation for gaudiness. The latter is likewise, but more solid – a shining white fortress of knowledge – and those in a real hurry could skip the insides of both and still have seen something amazing. (You could also miss the souk and fish market, included on most full-day tours, if necessary; there are more exciting examples in other Arab countries.) Only a fool would bunk off the billowing dunes of A’Sharqiyah Sands, though.
A mere two hours from Muscat, I found myself standing, dazzled and dumbfounded, on the shore of a bone-dry ocean: 200km of saffron-paprika mustard-seed sand, wind-blown over centuries into waves of beautiful, barren desert. There is nothing to punctuate the unending stillness – save, of course, some surprisingly comfortable overnight camps, a mixture of canvas and something firmer. Tourists largely arrive for dusk and leave after breakfast, thinking there’s not much to do in the desert. (They’re wrong: camel rides, sand-surfing, star-gazing and “dune-bashing” in a 4x4 are memorable ways to engage with the emptiness.) So if you squeeze two nights into your itinerary, that means you’ll have the hours between one group’s departure and the next’s arrival to yourself, for some stumbling, humbling alone time with the dunes.
If it sounds daunting – or as if you’ll need Bettany Hughes-level expertise to organise a trip – relax. Plenty of tour operators can put together an Oman holiday for you (try, for instance, Western & Oriental: 020 3588 6130, westernoriental.com). Oman’s mountains, and its southern coastal resorts (most notably Salalah), mean it’s probably the one Arabian Gulf state you can comfortably visit in summer – and you’ll certainly find attractive rates then. But the heat will pretty much rule out Muscat or the desert then, which would be a shame, so you’re probably better going at Easter or waiting till autumn. Whenever you visit, though, Oman’s aridity makes its oases even more amazing: scattered across the country, just about frequently enough to break every long drive once, are wadis – streams, rivers, flooded caves, rocky pools, natural swim-holes, each blazing green with life in the midst of the desolate dryness… perfect for a refreshing dip.
Leaving A’Sharqiyah, I stopped for a whooping splash-about at Wadi Bani Khalid en route for the mountains of Al Jabal Al Akhdar, a couple of hours’ drive west. There, epic peaks and echoing canyons have their hard edges softened by the apricot, peach, pomegranate and rose trees that are harvested here, 2,000 metres above (and 15°C below) the plains. Once again, there are incongruously luxurious hotels built sympathetically into the landscape, and I spend a couple of days walking, climbing, exploring the surrounding farms and forts and villages – and, yes, consuming cocktails by the infinity pool.
The sun floats gently down towards the horizon; the heat haze mellows to a pleasing warmth; the first stars appear; and across this timeless landscape, I hear the melancholy but compelling voices of a thousand muezzins echo from minarets, calling the faithful, as they have for centuries, to cocktails. No, wait, that’s not right. Or is it? Of all the destinations historian Bettany Hughes visits in her series, it’s Oman (focus of next week’s episode, but available now on All 4) that offers the perfect balance between exotic, Indiana Jones-y adventure and easy-breezy, Bridget Jones-y jaunt. In fact, the joy of a break in Oman is that you get all the ancient Arabia you could want – and Hughes finds fascinating evidence of a 5,000-year-old civilisation – right there alongside all that nice holiday stuff. You know: great hotels, amazing beaches, effortless infrastructure and, yes, a few drinks (with a caveat for LGBTQ+ travellers that you’re in a Muslim country and will need to be discreet). In fact, Muscat has beaches better than any capital city has a right to, and I spend my first day in Oman planted firmly beneath a palm on one of them (most hotels have their own semiprivate stretch), imbibing Arabic culture in addictively relaxing, peach-scented shisha form. The next day, it’s deliciously easy to knock off the major sights and be back in time for (cardamom) tea.
The must-sees, even if you’re only stopping over in Oman for a day en route elsewhere, are the Grand Mosque and the gleamingly new National Museum. The former is a divinely graceful complex of courtyards, arches, domes and those fairy-tale minarets, all in an elegantly minimalist white stone that belies the Gulf ’s reputation for gaudiness. The latter is likewise, but more solid – a shining white fortress of knowledge – and those in a real hurry could skip the insides of both and still have seen something amazing. (You could also miss the souk and fish market, included on most full-day tours, if necessary; there are more exciting examples in other Arab countries.) Only a fool would bunk off the billowing dunes of A’Sharqiyah Sands, though.
A mere two hours from Muscat, I found myself standing, dazzled and dumbfounded, on the shore of a bone-dry ocean: 200km of saffron-paprika mustard-seed sand, wind-blown over centuries into waves of beautiful, barren desert. There is nothing to punctuate the unending stillness – save, of course, some surprisingly comfortable overnight camps, a mixture of canvas and something firmer. Tourists largely arrive for dusk and leave after breakfast, thinking there’s not much to do in the desert. (They’re wrong: camel rides, sand-surfing, star-gazing and “dune-bashing” in a 4x4 are memorable ways to engage with the emptiness.) So if you squeeze two nights into your itinerary, that means you’ll have the hours between one group’s departure and the next’s arrival to yourself, for some stumbling, humbling alone time with the dunes.
If it sounds daunting – or as if you’ll need Bettany Hughes-level expertise to organise a trip – relax. Plenty of tour operators can put together an Oman holiday for you (try, for instance, Western & Oriental: 020 3588 6130, westernoriental.com). Oman’s mountains, and its southern coastal resorts (most notably Salalah), mean it’s probably the one Arabian Gulf state you can comfortably visit in summer – and you’ll certainly find attractive rates then. But the heat will pretty much rule out Muscat or the desert then, which would be a shame, so you’re probably better going at Easter or waiting till autumn. Whenever you visit, though, Oman’s aridity makes its oases even more amazing: scattered across the country, just about frequently enough to break every long drive once, are wadis – streams, rivers, flooded caves, rocky pools, natural swim-holes, each blazing green with life in the midst of the desolate dryness… perfect for a refreshing dip.
Leaving A’Sharqiyah, I stopped for a whooping splash-about at Wadi Bani Khalid en route for the mountains of Al Jabal Al Akhdar, a couple of hours’ drive west. There, epic peaks and echoing canyons have their hard edges softened by the apricot, peach, pomegranate and rose trees that are harvested here, 2,000 metres above (and 15°C below) the plains. Once again, there are incongruously luxurious hotels built sympathetically into the landscape, and I spend a couple of days walking, climbing, exploring the surrounding farms and forts and villages – and, yes, consuming cocktails by the infinity pool.
ED GRENBY