Wadi Mistal a ‘huge open air museum’

By Khaled H Abdul Malak — A few months ago I decided to make a trip to Wadi Mistal to check out some interesting structures I spotted on Google Earth. Many round shape structures in the wadi and other ones looking like remains of houses near the village of Hadash teased my curiosity. For a change I did not plan any climbing or abseiling for that Friday during the month of January. I was alone that day as the other members of my family and my friends decided to lay back and relax in Muscat. I prepared my cool box with food and drinks, packed my photography equipment and took the road to Nakhl around 7 am. The weather was very pleasant in the capital that day and I expected cold weather in the mountain. After I reached Nakhl I drove another 15 minutes direction Rustaq and turned left towards the mountains at the signboard indicating Wadi Mistal.

Only a few kilometres further I was driving in Al Ghubra Bowl surrounded with high peaks all around heading southwest towards the mountain hosting the village of Hadash. Once I got to the furcation showing Wakan to the right I carried on driving straight. After a few minutes I saw the round structures I saw on Google Earth and I realised that they were honeycomb tombs. There were plenty of them built mainly on the ridge of the mountains or on high places overlooking a wadi below. I saw as well many stone structures built in a straight line to delimitate rectangular shaped plots.  The road to Hadash is very steep with spectacular views to the Ghubrah bowl. Around 20 minutes later I reached my destination.

I parked my car at the end of the road just at the entrance of the hamlet and I started walking towards the gardens built in terraces below. Few minutes later I found the remains of a fortress built on the edge of a mount overlooking the entire Ghubrah bowl making the place very strategic and militarily impregnable during the old days! The site is quite big covering a surface of approximately 4,000 square metres. I took some pictures and started walking back to Hadash to meet some villagers for more information about the site. A young man I met there told me that in the past his grandfather found on the site a piece of pottery dating from 500 BC!

I carried on my visit climbing up towards the watchtower built on the mountain above the village. The structure is still in pretty good condition but showing an important crack in one of the walls. I hope that it will be repaired before it collapses. I had my lunch at the foot of the watchtower with a fabulous view to the village below. Once I finished eating my sandwich I started to hike up following the falaj winding up and disappearing in the mountain. I could see in some places the old water channel built with stones running near the concrete recent one. I followed the falaj till I found the source of the water pouring out of a cave. I had a short break and started walking back to my car. On my way I saw two rock climbers moving on the face of a cliff near the village.

Sunday 18th, May 2014 / 20:38 Written by Khaled H Abdul Malak 

in Features