The Norway of Arabia — limestone fjords, dhow cruises and wild dolphins
Khasab is the capital of Oman's Musandam Peninsula, a dramatic exclave of limestone cliffs and steep-sided khors (fjords) that jut into the Strait of Hormuz. The Musandam fjords are the only desert fjords on Earth — towering pale limestone walls plunging directly into emerald-green water, navigated by traditional wooden dhow boats where spinner dolphins leap in the bow-wave. Khasab is reached by air from Muscat or by land from Dubai, but it feels utterly remote: the nearest town in Oman proper is a ferry or flight away.
The Musandam Peninsula was inhabited by the Shihuh tribe, one of Oman's most isolated and distinctive peoples, who built stone watchtowers (khanjar-shaped) across the mountaintops and traded by boat through the Strait of Hormuz for centuries. The Portuguese constructed a fort at Khasab in 1507 as part of their control of the Persian Gulf spice trade — the Khasab Castle still stands at the town waterfront, now a museum of maritime and tribal life. The British maintained a treaty relationship with the Musandam Shihuh through the Trucial States era; Oman absorbed the peninsula at independence in…