Bahla Fort rises above the oasis like a mountain made of mud. Its massive walls and towers of adobe and stone, built on a rocky outcrop in the plain below the Hajar mountains, were the stronghold of the Banu Nebhan, a tribe that dominated the region from roughly the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Around the fort, the old town of Bahla is enclosed by a wall that runs for kilometres across the oasis, and the date palms and fields inside are watered by aflaj, ancient irrigation channels that carry water from underground sources and springs. UNESCO listed the fort in 1987, and after years of restoration, it is open to visitors.
Bahla has long had a reputation for magic and the supernatural, and many Omanis still associate the town with jinn and sorcery. More tangibly, it is known for its pottery, made by hand from local clay, and you can visit workshops in the town. A short ride away, Jabrin Castle, built in the seventeenth century, is a beautiful fortified palace with painted ceilings and carved woodwork, and the aflaj irrigation systems of Oman are listed by UNESCO in their own right.
The riding in the interior of Oman is excellent. The main roads are good, with smooth tarmac and little traffic, and the scenery of rocky mountains, desert plains and green oases is stunning. To the north, the road up to Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in Oman, climbs through steep hairpins to a viewpoint over a deep canyon, sometimes called the Grand Canyon of Arabia. The road to Jebel Akhdar, the Green Mountain, is steep and has a police checkpoint at the bottom, where they may insist on four-wheel drive vehicles. The heat in summer is extreme, often over forty-five degrees, so ride early in the morning and rest in the afternoon.
Bahla, with over fifty thousand inhabitants, has fuel, shops and restaurants, and Nizwa, about twenty-four kilometres away, is a larger town with a famous fort and a souq. On Fridays, the Nizwa livestock market is a lively spectacle. Try shuwa, lamb or goat marinated with spices and slow-cooked underground, and drink kahwa, Omani coffee flavoured with cardamom, served with dates.