Travel to Oman: Hamra

There's a new Hamra but the old one is a museum of clay.

Make default image size larger

A view over the town's irrigated land; in the distance, new Hamra.  Half an hour's drive more is Nizwa.

Entrance in the old town.

The old town is on a slope overlooking the palms.

Much of it is decaying.

Still, you can get a good look at the traditional way to support walls over windows here.

Typical shelving built into the wall.

Above, narrow, traditional windows and palm-log ceiling.

Stairs to the roof.

Carved lintel.  Newer buildings do have framed doors and windows.

A building of many windows, old-style and new.

Doorway into the Hamra suq, or market.

Four dozen stalls.

Corridor.

There's a scattering of people still in the old town; here, a creative use for palm leaves.

Down in the groves, separating walls.

Irrigation channels.

Protecting a young palm.

At maturity.

A mechanical intruder.  Note, also, the irrigation ditch.  It was common for large aflaj to bifurcate, with one channel serving the needs of the palms and another those of people.  Water rights for agriculture were carefully guarded, but domestic water was delivered without charge and was neatly arranged so water was taken first for drinking, then for bathing and washing, and finally for ritually bathing the dead.