Bahla Fort

Bahla Fort is one of the older fortifications in the country and is a huge mud brick structure, built to control the Frankincense trade. Originally constructed in the 12th century the fort has been expanded in 3 stages and has now been heavily repaired as the unbaked mud brick erodes in the winter rains.

Visiting Bahla Fort

We booked a private full day tour of Nizwa Fort, Jabreen Castle and Bahla Fort through Viator with Oman Golden Tours. The drive to Bahla was around 20 minutes from Nizwa, so maybe 2 hours from Muscat. There are plenty of tours available so it depends on priorities and budget. A private tour was obviously pricier but allowed me to see what I wanted to see without being given a time frame.

Driving to Bahla yourself is perfectly feasible, the roads are excellent, signs both extensive and in English and the driving standard seemed good. There is a large car park just past the fort entrance with the cannons, next to the mosque.

My Experience

The fort at Bahla is just across the road from the mosque so being both Friday and the start of Ramadam. the area was busy! The castle was huge and older than Nizwa with a solid stone base level and various towers properly organised for defence. The fort was built of mud brick to guard frankincense trade routes, probably in the 12th century and is the largest in Oman. Construction was certainly cruder than Nizwa, or at least the finish of the buildings, with no smoothed walls or decoration.

The heat was pretty oppressive by now so Deb went to sit in the shade whilst I clambered up stairs, along walls and in and out of rooms, vaguely following the perimeter of the wall. There were a few other tourists around but most seemed to be following Deb’s example so I had the place almost to myself as Juma had gone to perform his prayers in the Friday Mosque. The rooms outside the kasbah, fortified citadel, were all bare of both decoration and furnishing but the walls were thick enough to allow niches to be built in to them.

I couldn’t go to the top of the tower as that was ladder access only and blocked off but there were nice views over the oasis from the walls and several other mud brick buildings in various states of decay. The town is apparently surrounded by the original city wall, or as original as it can get being patched up after each rainy season.

The kasbah had massively high rooms on the ground floor and some beautiful wooden doors as well as Islamic inscriptions in the entrance hall. I spent some more time exploring here before returning to Deb for us both to walk around the handicraft section next to the (closed) cafe where she was sat. This was very pretty with some lovely modern design touches to show off the pottery workshop’s output.

We didn’t spend as long here as at Nizwa as there was no exhibition and most of the rooms were empty. Although there were plaques on some of the rooms they were limited to “East Tower” type information and there was no leaflet to guide you around or other explanations as to the functions or uses of the rooms.

Bahla Fort Photo Gallery

History

“The oldest and perhaps also the most interesting part of the fort is the Al Qasaba, usually ascribed as being constructed during the time of the Nabhani dynasties though archaeological finds with Sassanid influence suggest that an even earlier origin might be possible. Next to it is Bait Al Hadith (the modern house) and Bab A’Sabah, the main entrance to the fort, which features 3 of the main defensive features of the fort: “murder holes” above the entrance which allowed boiling dibs (date syrup) to be poured down onto attackers; “double trap doors and stairs with deep well receptacles”; and “loop holes”, i.e. small openings in the walls which allowed musketeers to fire from interior through central holes. The most prominent part of the fort when viewed from the main road (best lighting for photography in the afternoon), is Burj A’Rih (the wind tower), which gives panoramic views over the oasis. Above two cannons, outside the entrance gate, you’ll find a UNESCO WHS certificate plaque on the wall.”

“The fort is believed to have been built between the 12th and 15th century by the Banu Nebhan tribe who inhabited the area at the time and were known for controlling the trade of frankincense.

As part of the complex, there is also a citadel oasis adjacent to the fort and an ancient wall spanning 13 kilometres part of which are still standing. The majority of the oasis is in ruins but the structure and some of the houses still stand.

As the fort was built with bricks made of mud and straw, erosion damaged the structure until rehabilitation efforts were launched.”

References

The first section in the history above is taken from the World Heritage site here, which has plenty of informative reviews of Bahla Fort.

The Wiki page here has some other information and the second paragraph of the history above is from Wiki.