Eco-Tourism in Oman

[HSMAO]

Eco-Tourism in Omanـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ــــــــــــــــــــــــ
Beaches
With a coastline of 3165km, Oman offers some of the cleanest, most stunning beaches a visitor could hope to see. Few beaches are private, except some attached to the beach resort hotels, or those adjoining military or official property. Weekend picnics and barbeques are popular on the beach. Many coves are perfect for snorkelling and with fairly gentle shelves, are good for children. Some of the beaches in the Muscat capital area include:
Aviation Beach, or Shell Beach,
Which is located near the Civil Aviation Club in Al Azaiba. A four-wheel drive vehicle is necessary to get down to the water's edge. It is abundant in starfish, crabs and exotic shells.
Qurum Beach
Qurum Beach, below the Crowne Plaza Hotel, is well set up for visitors and has a number of picnic areas and palm shades. When the tide is low, one can take a 4km walk towards the Embassies' area in Shati Al Qurum. Approximately half way along this stretch of beach is the Muscat InterContinental hotel. Around this area are many jetski rentals.




Bandar Jissah
Bandar Jissah is located near Qantab, on the way to Al Bustan. The bay is quite secluded and the rocks at the foot of the cliffs can be good for exploring when the tide is out. Snorkelling is popular here. There is also a children's playground and snack shop.
Marjan Beach
Marjan Beach, near Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), is quiet during the day, but tends to get livelier in the early evenings. It has some small coral reefs, perfect for the novice snorkeller, as one doesn't have to swim too far out before seeing the likes of clown fish, parrot fish, sea cucumbers and occasionally, turtles and rays. Local fishermen can be seen spearing cuttlefish.


Wadis of Oman
A wadi is a dried up riverbed found in the mountain valleys. Wadis come into their own after heavy rains, when the rivers start running again and the vegetation is restored. However, some wadis have year-round running water, with deep, cool pools in which it is quite safe to swim if the currents are slow. On the whole, wadis are only accessible with a four-wheel drive vehicle, as the terrain can be extremely bumpy. Wadis are green, lush oases of palm trees, grasses, and flowering shrubs. It is always safest to visit wadis in a group or with a tour guide. Although they are beautiful places, they are often remote and car breakdowns can happen to anyone. Visitors must also be on the alert for rain clouds, as sudden downpours can lead to flash floods, which are highly dangerous when in the gorges.
Wadi Bani Khalid:
Wadi Bani Khalid is about 203 km far from Muscat. It is the best-known wadi of the Sharqiyah region. Its stream maintains a constant flow of water throughout the year. Large pools of water and boulders are scattered along the course of the wadi. As a geographical area, Wadi Bani Khalid covers a large swathe of low land and mountains.

Caves form some of the interesting features of this wadi. These include Kahf Maqal which is one of the Sultanate's underground chambers. However, reaching this cave takes a lot of effort and visitors should be prepared for the adventure. Springs of water are also common in this wadi. The springs of Ain Hamouda, Ain al Sarooj and Ain Dawwa, among others, are a blessing to the eye as one ventures along the wadis. The village of Badaa is a well-known tourist stop in the valley.
Wadi Shab and Wadi Tiwi:
Wadi Shab lies in Niyabat Tiwi, Wilayat of Sur, is 76 km from Qurayyat. It is easy to reach this wadi from the Qurayyat-Sur highway. The wadi combines the attractions of coast areas and inland wonders. It has at least seven pools of shimmering emerald green water studded beautiful boulders. One of the pools is in a cave where light streams in dramatically from above and there are fantastic echoes as you swim and splash.
About seven kilometers away from Wadi Shab starts Wadi Tiwi which extends 36 km inland and ends at a mountain village known as Mibam. Many groves and fruit trees grow along the course of this wadi from which the azure blue sea can be seen as you climb up the hills and descend into the valleys.
Wadi Al Abyadh:
One of the Al Batinah region's best loved valleys is Wadi Al Abyadh which lies some 30 km away from Muscat-Sohar highway. With a four-wheel drive vehicle, it will be a memorable experience to explore this wadi, which is vested in green vegetation and white boulders and rocks, from which the wadi probably takes its name. The rough road runs through the middle of the wadi. There are pink oleander trees and many beautiful birds.
Wadi Dhaiqah:
Wadi Dhaiqah lies in a grand canyon about 90 km eastwards from the Bait Hattat (Wadi Adei) roundabout in Muscat. As many as 120 other wadis lead to this great valley which features as a large natural park extending from Wilayat Dima W'attayyeen in the Sharqiyah region to the Wilayat of Qurayyat in the Governorate of Muscat.

It is easy to reach Wadi Dhaiqah from the highway, but after 20 minutes venturing into the wadi one is surprised by massive boulders and deep pools before coming across the famous fruit farms of Al Mazarea and many other attractions. In some places along Wadi Dhaiqah, the valley becomes narrow and its walls shoot up and change into high, wonderful cliffs.

The springs that feed Wadi Dhaiqah are constant and contain abundant water supplies, particularly during the rainy season, which prompted the government to draft plans for a major irrigation project. To explore the full stretch of Wadi Dhaiqah is a real challenge, but, for adventure lovers a worthwhile one.



The Falaj system and water Springs
Falaj (pl. aflaaj)
means a system for the distribution of water and is commonly used to describe the irrigation channel system downstream of the water's source.
Some aflaaj in Oman were built more than 1,500 years ago, whilst others were built at the beginning of the 20th century. The genius of the Omani builders is evident in the way they tunnelled into the ground to a depth of dozens of metres in order to gain access to the groundwater. These channels were truly a miracle of engineering at a time when mechanical equipment was not available.
Aflaaj can be divided into 3 types:
The da'ndi - these are long tunnels (qanat) dug into the ground up to depths of dozens of metres and extendin for several kilometres. The water flows continuously all the year round. The course of a qanat is marked by the series of access holes used in tunnelling. The access holes are left open after tunnelling as inspection vents.
The aini - these derive water from a sprin , including a hot spring.
The ghiayl - a channel tapping a flow in the upper gravels of a wadi.

There are now over 4,000 aflaaj scattered throughout the Sultanate, with the highest concentration in Sohar.

When the falaj waters reach the population, the inhabitants draw off their needs and the rest is distributed to agricultural plots according to an exact system of apportioning the hours of the day under the supervision of an elected member of the community. A proportion of the agricultural harvest is allocated as a contribution towards the upkeep of the aflaaj and irrigation ditches.

Since the 1970's the government has taken steps to maintain this precious heritage by restoring aflaa7, and making them more efficient by digging support wells and ensuring an optimum use of water by introducing modern irrigation systems.
SPRINGS
There are hot and cold springs in several areas of the country. The best known hot springs are in Rustaq and Nahkl, whilst the most beautiful cold spring is Ain Razat in Salalah.

[**روح**]

big thanks

[بنت آدم]

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaans

[يكفي إني عمانيه]

waw we are studying the eco tourism and you gave me some information aout the subject many thanks

[hamza23]

i will copy it for my next year economics class and show it to the teacher

[أميرة الشوق]

أرسل أصلا بواسطة HSMAO

Eco-Tourism in Omanـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ ــــــــــــــــــــــــ
Beaches
With a coastline of 1700km, Oman offers some of the cleanest, most stunning beaches a visitor could hope to see. Few beaches are private, except some attached to the beach resort hotels, or those adjoining military or official property. Weekend picnics and barbeques are popular on the beach. Many coves are perfect for snorkelling and with fairly gentle shelves, are good for children. Some of the beaches in the Muscat capital area include:
Aviation Beach, or Shell Beach,
Which is located near the Civil Aviation Club in Al Azaiba. A four-wheel drive vehicle is necessary to get down to the water's edge. It is abundant in starfish, crabs and exotic shells.
Qurum Beach
Qurum Beach, below the Crowne Plaza Hotel, is well set up for visitors and has a number of picnic areas and palm shades. When the tide is low, one can take a 4km walk towards the Embassies' area in Shati Al Qurum. Approximately half way along this stretch of beach is the Muscat InterContinental hotel. Around this area are many jetski rentals.




Bandar Jissah
Bandar Jissah is located near Qantab, on the way to Al Bustan. The bay is quite secluded and the rocks at the foot of the cliffs can be good for exploring when the tide is out. Snorkelling is popular here. There is also a children's playground and snack shop.
Marjan Beach
Marjan Beach, near Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), is quiet during the day, but tends to get livelier in the early evenings. It has some small coral reefs, perfect for the novice snorkeller, as one doesn't have to swim too far out before seeing the likes of clown fish, parrot fish, sea cucumbers and occasionally, turtles and rays. Local fishermen can be seen spearing cuttlefish.


Wadis of Oman
A wadi is a dried up riverbed found in the mountain valleys. Wadis come into their own after heavy rains, when the rivers start running again and the vegetation is restored. However, some wadis have year-round running water, with deep, cool pools in which it is quite safe to swim if the currents are slow. On the whole, wadis are only accessible with a four-wheel drive vehicle, as the terrain can be extremely bumpy. Wadis are green, lush oases of palm trees, grasses, and flowering shrubs. It is always safest to visit wadis in a group or with a tour guide. Although they are beautiful places, they are often remote and car breakdowns can happen to anyone. Visitors must also be on the alert for rain clouds, as sudden downpours can lead to flash floods, which are highly dangerous when in the gorges.
Wadi Bani Khalid:
Wadi Bani Khalid is about 203 km far from Muscat. It is the best-known wadi of the Sharqiyah region. Its stream maintains a constant flow of water throughout the year. Large pools of water and boulders are scattered along the course of the wadi. As a geographical area, Wadi Bani Khalid covers a large swathe of low land and mountains.

Caves form some of the interesting features of this wadi. These include Kahf Maqal which is one of the Sultanate's underground chambers. However, reaching this cave takes a lot of effort and visitors should be prepared for the adventure. Springs of water are also common in this wadi. The springs of Ain Hamouda, Ain al Sarooj and Ain Dawwa, among others, are a blessing to the eye as one ventures along the wadis. The village of Badaa is a well-known tourist stop in the valley.
Wadi Shab and Wadi Tiwi:
Wadi Shab lies in Niyabat Tiwi, Wilayat of Sur, is 76 km from Qurayyat. It is easy to reach this wadi from the Qurayyat-Sur highway. The wadi combines the attractions of coast areas and inland wonders. It has at least seven pools of shimmering emerald green water studded beautiful boulders. One of the pools is in a cave where light streams in dramatically from above and there are fantastic echoes as you swim and splash.
About seven kilometers away from Wadi Shab starts Wadi Tiwi which extends 36 km inland and ends at a mountain village known as Mibam. Many groves and fruit trees grow along the course of this wadi from which the azure blue sea can be seen as you climb up the hills and descend into the valleys.
Wadi Al Abyadh:
One of the Al Batinah region's best loved valleys is Wadi Al Abyadh which lies some 30 km away from Muscat-Sohar highway. With a four-wheel drive vehicle, it will be a memorable experience to explore this wadi, which is vested in green vegetation and white boulders and rocks, from which the wadi probably takes its name. The rough road runs through the middle of the wadi. There are pink oleander trees and many beautiful birds.
Wadi Dhaiqah:
Wadi Dhaiqah lies in a grand canyon about 90 km eastwards from the Bait Hattat (Wadi Adei) roundabout in Muscat. As many as 120 other wadis lead to this great valley which features as a large natural park extending from Wilayat Dima W'attayyeen in the Sharqiyah region to the Wilayat of Qurayyat in the Governorate of Muscat.

It is easy to reach Wadi Dhaiqah from the highway, but after 20 minutes venturing into the wadi one is surprised by massive boulders and deep pools before coming across the famous fruit farms of Al Mazarea and many other attractions. In some places along Wadi Dhaiqah, the valley becomes narrow and its walls shoot up and change into high, wonderful cliffs.

The springs that feed Wadi Dhaiqah are constant and contain abundant water supplies, particularly during the rainy season, which prompted the government to draft plans for a major irrigation project. To explore the full stretch of Wadi Dhaiqah is a real challenge, but, for adventure lovers a worthwhile one.



The Falaj system and water Springs
Falaj (pl. aflaaj)
means a system for the distribution of water and is commonly used to describe the irrigation channel system downstream of the water's source.
Some aflaaj in Oman were built more than 1,500 years ago, whilst others were built at the beginning of the 20th century. The genius of the Omani builders is evident in the way they tunnelled into the ground to a depth of dozens of metres in order to gain access to the groundwater. These channels were truly a miracle of engineering at a time when mechanical equipment was not available.
Aflaaj can be divided into 3 types:
The da'ndi - these are long tunnels (qanat) dug into the ground up to depths of dozens of metres and extendin for several kilometres. The water flows continuously all the year round. The course of a qanat is marked by the series of access holes used in tunnelling. The access holes are left open after tunnelling as inspection vents.
The aini - these derive water from a sprin , including a hot spring.
The ghiayl - a channel tapping a flow in the upper gravels of a wadi.

There are now over 4,000 aflaaj scattered throughout the Sultanate, with the highest concentration in Sohar.

When the falaj waters reach the population, the inhabitants draw off their needs and the rest is distributed to agricultural plots according to an exact system of apportioning the hours of the day under the supervision of an elected member of the community. A proportion of the agricultural harvest is allocated as a contribution towards the upkeep of the aflaaj and irrigation ditches.

Since the 1970's the government has taken steps to maintain this precious heritage by restoring aflaa7, and making them more efficient by digging support wells and ensuring an optimum use of water by introducing modern irrigation systems.
SPRINGS
There are hot and cold springs in several areas of the country. The best known hot springs are in Rustaq and Nahkl, whilst the most beautiful cold spring is Ain Razat in Salalah.

With a coastline of 1700km, Oman offers some of the cleanest, most stunning beaches a visitor could hope to see



Thank but the coastline of beaches coast 3165 km

[ولدها عمان]

i was just about about to correct it , that the coastline is 3165 km but أميرة الشوق came first ...

thanks for the usefull information..

[HSMAO]

upرفع

[المستغفره]

useful.....