The keep
The last line of defence, over 13 m high.
Bernhard Dunst — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernhard Dunst — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Braveheart — CC BY 4.0 · Braveheart — CC BY 4.0 · Braveheart — CC BY 4.0
A 16th-century fort on a rise in Ras al Hadd, near the eastern tip of the Omani mainland where the Sea of Oman meets the Arabian Sea. Built of stone and gypsum, it has a keep over 13 metres high and two towers joined by a wall some three metres thick, overlooking the village and the mouth of the Khor al Hajar inlet. The tribes of Ras al Hadd built it together; the work is usually dated to about 1560–1590. Its ceilings used teak from India and timber from Mombasa and Zanzibar, a sign of Oman's seaborne ties. It was restored in 1989 and again in 2008 after severe weather, and the heritage ministry began further repairs in 2020. Past the great gate, a wide passage was used to receive tribes and hold councils; the rooms include a sabla for settling disputes and cells used as a temporary prison. High up is a masabba for pouring hot material onto attackers, and a cannon still stands in the western tower. The keep, about 16 by 13 metres, was the last line of defence, and a tunnel is said to run some 500 metres from it to Bir Marfas, a freshwater well. Ras al Hadd is about 26 km east of Sur as the crow flies, roughly 40 km by road. The Ras al Jinz Turtle Reserve is about 17 km south by road, so the fort suits an afternoon before the reserve's night viewing. Wadi Tiwi and Wadi Shab lie some 90 km by road, up the coast beyond Sur.
The last line of defence, over 13 m high.
A cannon still in place.
Teak from India, wood from Mombasa and Zanzibar.
Ras al Hadd, wilayat of Sur, on a rise above Khor al Hajar
Yes. The fort closes at 17:00, and the Ras al Jinz Turtle Reserve, the only place in Oman where visitors may watch nesting turtles, starts its night viewing at 21:00 (arrive by 20:30) and its dawn viewing at 05:00; times vary with the season, so confirm them when you book.
The works the ministry reported in October 2020 included treating cracks in the walls and in the roofs of the western tower and rooms, sealing leaks, preparing the fort to display its holdings, fitting wooden barriers along the upper corridors for safety and covering 109 openings with iron mesh to stop birds nesting.