Arabiansandtoursservices tagged posts

Preparing your holidays to Oman, especially Salalah-Dhofar, then we give you some ideas to go to and if help needed, just contact ArabianSandToursservices…

To the East…

To the West...

Sunday 23th it’s World Book Day. In Oman you don’t need a book to discover the area. In the north, the geology of the landscape is an open book, geologists told me. In Dhofar the geology of the landscape is a more hidden matter. That’s why perhaps it is also the region where the magic rituals of the frankincense still exist. The ‘Rub al Khali’ has seldom been inhabited. That’s why local call this ecological region the ‘Empty Quarter.’

Geologists nicknamed the Rub al Khali , the ‘Valuable Quarter,’ caused by findings of plant species and 24 different birds. Studies have shown that as recently as 40.000 years ago this desert was an area of lakes and rivers, where water buffalo’s thrived…The protected sandgrouse adapted to the desert, is one of the rarest of the Sultanate’s bird species. Rarely found by birdwatchers, this bird can even out fly a falcon. To reach spotting area’s you better take a guide with you…

It’s worthwhile to do the drive to Hasik area, about 205km east from Salalah. Hasik was involved in the ancient frankincense trade. It has a natural sheltered harbor. The area refuges nestling turtles and migrant birds. And…there is always the magic of the steep limestone hills broken by wadis, small creeks and sandy beaches…What are you waiting for….!

Four easy words describe what ‘Dhofar’ is all about.

Four ecological landscapes are involved…

Four pictures, four reasons to travel too…

(Click thumbnail to enlarge the pictures)

Farmer life mountains

Desert delights

Incense trail

sea sounds

(click on thumbnail to enlarge the picture)

During your experience of the real meaning of the Rub al Khali, you will certainly look and find ‘geodes,’ rocks that are not only geological wonders, they still are of some scientific interest to geologists. Normally, geodes are small hollow rocks lined with crystals. They are common in active volcanic areas of the world. The ‘Dhofar geodes’ differ from these. These geodes are found as hard round balls of rock lying loose in stony desert areas and somewhat surprisingly around the strand lines of dry lakes. Many of the geodes are hollow with thin airtight hard silica shells (quartz). When broken open they have interiors lined with elegantly shaped quartz crystals.