Sultanate of Oman
Asia Occidental
Incense · Desert · Proud
Oman is the only country that still uses the same trade routes as ancient Arabia — the Frankincense Trail, along which Omani frankincense was traded to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Más allá de la capital, las principales ciudades son Salalah, Sohar, Sur — cada una un centro de cultura regional, economía e historia. Muscat was built around a natural harbour between two dramatic rocky headlands — the Portuguese fortresses of Al-Mirani and Al-Jalali dating to 1507 still anchor the old harbour — while Sultan Qaboos's 1970-2020 reign transformed the sultanate from an almost entirely closed kingdom (fewer than 10 kilometres of paved road in 1970) into a country of modern highways, universities, and the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque's vast marble-floored courtyard.
El idioma oficial es árabe, que refleja el patrimonio cultural del país y lo conecta con una amplia comunidad internacional. Internacionalmente, Omán se contacta mediante el código +968. Omanis built a distinct identity from other Gulf states through a trading seafaring tradition — Omani merchants controlled the East African Zanzibar coast from 1698 to 1964, and the country's dhow building and navigation heritage connects to India, East Africa, and the Persian Gulf in a maritime culture that predates Islam in these waters by a thousand years.
Omán comparte sus fronteras con los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, Yemen, Arabia Saudí. El tráfico rodado circula por la derecha, en consonancia con la convención de
La vida económica y cotidiana se rige por la zona horaria de UTC+04:00, alineando el país con sus vecinos regionales.
Shuwa — a whole lamb marinated in spices and dried lime, wrapped in banana or palm leaves and slow-cooked in an underground sand oven for 24-48 hours — is Oman's celebratory meat dish, prepared specifically for Eid al-Adha and weddings where its preparation is a two-day community project whose result justifies the waiting with extraordinarily tender, deeply flavoured meat.
Football is Oman's primary modern sport, but falconry and camel racing represent the traditional aristocratic and tribal sporting cultures of the Arabian Peninsula that Oman shares with its Gulf neighbours — the sport of falconry being listed by UNESCO on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in a joint nomination from 18 countries including Oman.
Wadi Shab in Oman's Al Sharqiyah region is a canyon of emerald pools connected by a trail that includes a 5-metre swim through a cave opening into a grotto waterfall — one of the Arabian Peninsula's most extraordinary natural landscape features, existing in a country where the Hajar Mountains' wadi system creates green valleys in a landscape of otherwise extreme aridity.