Nizwa City & Jabel Akhdar Culture Tour

One hour and half from Muscat your tour will start by heading right away to Nizwa Souk, which is a local old bazaar with all kinds of Omani goods and essentials that can only be found over here. Inside the allies of Nizwa market you can see the Omani Locals doing their daily life shopping routine. These old markets are divided into many sections like the herbs and spices section, vegetables and fruits section, handicrafts section etc, if it happens to be Friday then also you can witness the Friday Goat market – which is an auction style market for animals that only take place on Fridays.

At a walking distance from the Souk there stands the Majestic Nizwa Fort, it is one of the biggest round structure Forts in the middle east that goes back to the 17th Century surrounded by an older castle built in the 10th Century. Here the visitors can learn about Oman history and why this fort is considered the most important national monument with 480 gun-ports and you can see different type of traps used to prevent enemies from getting into the main round tower.

Then head out for Birkat Al Mouz village, a small town at the foot of Jabel Akhdar (Green Mountain), famous for it is banana farms and water channels. The water channels system in Oman is very old and goes back to 4000 BC and in use till today. Thus, the UNESCO has acknowledged five of them, locally known as Falaj, as a living heritage of man’s hard work and intelligence. In Birkat Al Mouz lays Falaj Al Khatmeen which is one of the five Falajes recognised by UNESCO, visitor can see and learn more about this old water system while looking around the farms. You will be amazed at how much greenery is hidden in the middle of the arid mountains.

Not far from Birkat Al Mouz stands the green mountain of Oman (Jabal Akhdar), the name doesn’t really do justice to the nature of this mountain, as it is more on the dry side, but it is still the most vegetated mountain in Oman. It is famous for its fruits and rose’s plantation as the sides of the mountain is cut into steps for farming and that’s where it acquired the name Akhdar (Green). The access to the mountain is limited to 4WD cars only as it is a very steep road going up to the peak so not all tourists get the privilege to visit it. With us you will get to visit the terraces of farms and do some discovering around especially at wadi Bani Habib village.