Jebel Shams
Interesting facts
- The mountain belongs to the Jebel Akhdar dome, pushed up when the Semail Ophiolite, the largest exposed slab of ancient ocean floor on Earth, was thrust onto Arabia.
- Its cliffs are built of limestones laid down in shallow tropical seas between the Late Permian and the Cretaceous, and they still hold fossil corals, crinoids and stromatolites.
- The canyon below the rim runs for about 12 kilometres and cuts through more than 1,500 metres of stacked marine sediment.
- With a topographic prominence of about 2,800 metres, Jebel Shams ranks among the hundred-odd most prominent peaks in the world.
- A weather station near the top, at about 2,760 metres, records a mean annual temperature of only about 11°C despite its Arabian latitude.
- The mountain receives roughly 290 millimetres of rain a year, and June, not winter, is usually its wettest month.
- About fifteen families once lived at As Sab, growing wheat, pomegranates, lemons and chillies on terraces watered by a falaj channel.
- The houses of As Sab were built of stone quarried from the canyon wall, so they still stand long after their owners moved down to Al Hamra.
- The long-haired goats of the area are known for climbing into trees to browse when the ground is bare.
Why it is worth it
Jebel Shams, the "Mountain of the Sun", is the great summit of the Jebel Akhdar massif in Oman's Hajar range, and its name is explained locally by the simplest of reasons: standing at about 3,018 m, it is the first place in the country to catch the morning light. The mountain has two tops, the North Summit at about 3,009 m and the South Summit at about 2,997 m. The northern one, the true high point, is occupied by a military installation and closed, so the mountain is experienced not from its crest but from its edge, where the ground suddenly gives way.
That edge is the rim of Wadi An Nakhur, often called the Grand Canyon of Arabia. Here the plateau drops close to a thousand metres in a single sheer wall into a narrow gorge cut into the bare rock of the Hajar. Up here the air is a different country from the coast: summer temperatures sit around 20°C, and in winter they fall below freezing.
The way to see the canyon is the Balcony Walk, waymarked by Oman's tourism ministry. It begins at the deserted village of Al Khitaym near the rim and follows an old donkey track that keeps a near-level line along the canyon wall rather than climbing it, with the floor of the gorge far below. After roughly 3.5 km the path reaches As Sab, an abandoned hamlet of stone houses built into the cliff, with its terraced fields still visible; it was reachable only on foot, and its people lived off a thin line of channelled water. Beyond the terraces a short scramble leads to a small waterfall and pool. The whole walk is an out-and-back on the same path, about seven to eight kilometres in total.
Getting there
Jebel Shams lies north of the town of Al Hamra in the Ad Dakhiliyah region, about 240 km from Muscat; the drive takes about three and a half hours. The last hour is a winding mountain road, mostly paved with some dirt sections; an ordinary car can make it, but a four-wheel drive is the safer choice, especially after rain. The town of Rustaq is about 24 km away in a straight line, and the nearest international airport is Muscat International Airport (MCT), about 112 km in a straight line.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Jabal Shams or Jebel Shams is a mountain located in northeastern Oman north of the town of Al-Hamra.
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