For its sheer size, and the scale of the recently completed restoration work, Bahla Fort is hard to beat. It grabs the eye as you approach the town and you start to realise that the various walls and towers reach out and are inextricably linked with the walls of the town and its Friday mosque. The immense fort and fortifications enabled the local tribe to dominate the surrounding oases and prosper in the medieval period, and as a foremost example of its type, the fort and town have UNESCO World Heritage status, and UNESCO were involved in the restoration work (a perpetual job as each winter’s rains wash away a layer of the mud brick construction). Bahla lies between Nizwa and Jabreen and you should definitely stop to admire the fort as you pass through the town.
