Oman - Zanzibar: A Thousand and One Nights & a magical island

Muscat is here. Exactly as Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said wanted it to be from the start of his reign 43 years ago, i.e. entirely white - although sand is permitted - and very low-rise, rarely more than five storeys high. As in the Muttrah district, otherwise known as the port district, which stretches out like a crescent along a cornice that has been converted into a promenade. In a way, its geography reproduces the auditorium of an Italian-style theatre, whose stage is represented by an immense, almost closed bay. There, alongside old dhows on moorings, fishermen's boats bob about, blissfully unaware of Her Majesty's yacht, which practically rivals in size its neighbour, a cruise ship belonging to the Costa company. And that's saying something!

It's early, very early, and the sun is shining brightly on the balconies of the immaculate facades. They were built by the Liwatiya, a Shiite community that arrived from India in the 17th century. And in the centre of the Muttrah district, a splash of colour, the Lawati mosque. Its minaret of Samarkand-style blue mosaics, enhanced by yellow ochre motifs, sets the pace.

Wonderful lamps

As the morning draws on, the cafés put out plastic tables and chairs for the first teas of the day, and the stalls open one by one to welcome the first tourists to disembark from their buses. Under its vaulted passageways, this district is home to one of the most spectacular souks in Arabia. At times, with its profusion of lanterns lighting up the tiny windowless shops with all their colours, with its gleaming brassware resembling the image one might have of an Aladdin lamp, with its traditional chests probably reproduced in Asia, its ancient pottery turned the day before yesterday, its stalls of dried fruit, its innumerable merchants of heady perfumes and its volutes of incense that once made the country's reputation ; At times, you feel like you're on the set of a Bollywood film about Scheherazade.

In the seventeenth century, the Liwatiya came to trade to Muscat from the Sindh region of what is now Pakistan. This Hindu community, which has converted to Shia Islam, has set up a separate enclave near the Muttrah district. Although non-members of the community are forbidden to enter this "forbidden city", the area around it allows visitors to admire the chiselled balconies of the traditional houses, dominated by a turquoise minaret.

"Muscat's souk gives you the chance to rub shoulders with the locals and see how exquisitely polite they are. There is no heavy-handed insistence on the part of the merchants, and above all, you are not at all used to mass tourism.". Mohamed Ben Abderrahamane, Director of Enjoy Oman.

Black Abayas and immaculate Dishdashas

This souk isn't very big. So there's no risk of getting lost. So don't hesitate to venture down one of the tiny lanes leading off from the lane reserved for merchants from the A thousand and one nights to be absolutely sure that you're getting it right; for example, with the gold and silver merchants, but above all with the brightly printed fabrics that are impossible in our latitudes. For under their black abayas, the women wear long dresses, veritable fireworks that you catch a glimpse of by chance, in a gust of breezy wind or when climbing a slightly high step. For the men, young and old alike, immaculate white is the unanimous colour. Sometimes a little beige, or plum, but that's rare... So they all wear the dishdasha, a tunic closed at the neck and reaching down to the feet. Underneath - and this is the inevitable question asked of the guides by indiscreet Western women - they wear only a light tunic, or even a long loincloth, also white, which they skilfully wrap around their waists. On their heads, the ubiquitous kummaThis is a small, round hat that originated in faraway Zanzibar when the island was a colony of the Sultanate. Traditional dress is worn so much in Oman that you can be sure, when you see a young man in jeans and trainers, that he's an Indian or Pakistani national... As for the women in short dresses, but not too short, it's always a question of a Westerner on the move. "This souk is the ideal place for a treasure huntsays Mohamed Ben Abderrahamane, director of Enjoy Oman. All the treasures of the world are here, shining with the thousand lights of the Orient."

That was for the port area, a must-see for tourists. Just a few kilometres away is historic Muscat, which at 3 km2 holds the record for being the world's smallest capital. Beyond Bab El Kebir, the main gate of the old city walls, it is a delightful city that is now very open, which was hardly the case until the 1970s - until the deposition of the former sultan by his son, the current sultan - when doors were still closed in the evening and curfews were introduced. Just like in the Middle Ages. There's not much to see here apart from a few fine residences, generally former embassies like the Omani French Museum, which was the residence of the French consuls until 1920.

Oh yes, there is the Sultan's palace, Al Alam Palace, now used mainly for official receptions; an extravagance built in the 1970s, a large cube hidden behind four enormous and surprising columns in the shape of lotus flowers, painted in firecracker blue or gold. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that this building will not go down in architectural history... Fortunately, the palace has recently added a much more sober wing, almost too so, to accommodate foreign officials.

1 and 2 - The Muttrah souk evokes a legendary Arabia. With the furtive silhouettes of women in abayas, an air of mystery floats through the aisles filled with stalls illuminated by strings of multicoloured glass suspended haphazardly. But it is above all the scent of incense that perfumes this market of the Thousand and One Nights, a resin harvested in Dhofar that has made Omani trade prosper.

3 - Magnificent, opulent, In the early hours of the morning, the great Sultan Qaboos mosque still exudes an impression of serenity. 4 - The khandjar, the emblematic dagger of the country proudly worn by Omanis, as seen here at the reception of the Al Angham restaurant.

There are no skyscrapers on the brink of the inferno, just houses no higher than five storeys... Nestling in a natural setting between the sea and a multitude of jagged hills, Muscat's old town has carefully preserved its age-old charm thanks to strict town-planning regulations.

A succession of forts line the road, part of which runs along the coast, leading from Muscat to the Wahiba desert. At the entrance to the port of Sur, two watchtowers protect this historic crossroads to Africa. For a long time the country's main port, before Muscat's rise, the city looked to the sea, and its other speciality was building dhows.

A sense of purity

Sobriety! That's the watchword of Omani architecture. As we have seen, everything is light years ahead of its Gulf neighbours. Almost everything is white. Everything is straight and unambiguous, with only the occasional ribbed window to soften it. Such simplicity could almost be reminiscent of the Cistercian style, with its refined sophistication. The comparison is daring, no doubt, but there is something of that in this building. As a result, you get straight to the point and appreciate the incomparable tranquillity of this old town founded in the 1st century AD. Then, over there in the background, your gaze lingers on the blue of the sea, which stands out as a counterpoint to the two mountains bordering ancient Muscat to the right and left.

For a long time, these rocks served as natural defences, so much so that the Portuguese, who occupied Oman for almost 150 years until 1649, built a fort on each of them: Al-Mirani on one side and Al-Jalali on the other. These brown-tinted forts are still there, intact, one used by the army and the other transformed into a museum for VIP visitors.

1 - The chic districts of the Omani capital, located around the opera house, are bordered by an unmarked beach. And a public one. In the evenings, young people enjoy their favourite sport, football.

2 - Inaugurated at the end of 2011, Muscat's opera house features traditional architecture with a contemporary twist. All in the dazzling white that characterises the city.

3 - In stark contrast to the prevailing sobriety The Al Alam Palace, with its gold and turquoise columns, may not be the most successful building in the capital, but its importance is striking.

VIPs, like all visitors, will not be able to avoid a visit to the great Sultan Qaboos Mosque after crossing the New Town. Immense, grandiose, out of bounds... Everything has been thought of in superlative terms within these walls inaugurated by His Majesty in 2001. Surface area: 416,000 m2. Capacity: 20,000 worshippers. The main chandelier, made in Germany and Austria: eight metres in diameter, 14 metres high, eight tonnes and 1,122 bulbs. The Persian carpet: 70 m x 60 m, hand-woven in one piece by 600 workers over four years. It weighs 21 tonnes... And crenellated walls in the style of Omani forts, five minarets symbolising the five pillars of Islam, Italian marble esplanades, flower-filled spaces, a succession of arcades, ablutions rooms, gardens enchanted by birds, refreshing Andalusian pools... A unity of place certainly, but materials, craftsmen and above all infuences borrowed from the most beautiful in the Islamic world: Iran, the Maghreb, Samarkand, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem or the Cathedral Mosque in Cordoba... Everything is intertwined in what can only be described as great art.

The latest monument not to be missed: the opera house. Her Majesty is known to be a music lover, so she spared no effort to ensure that a music palace worthy of the name was built in her capital. This was done in 2011, and magnificently so. It is also the first opera house in the Arabian Peninsula. Today, it hosts classical music concerts, grand operas, ballets, fado recitals and jazz concerts.

As long as you're in the Qurm district, where the opera is held, why not linger a while? It's rich and opulent. Private houses, where you could easily house thirty or so families, follow the embassies. And at the end of the street, a sublime beach. Palm trees, white sand and blue sea. As is too often forgotten, Muscat is also a seaside resort. Some of the big hotels have understood this, including the extraordinary Shangri-La, which has set up just twenty minutes from the city, between the arid desert mountains and the Indian Ocean. It offers - but it's not the only one - every possible water activity, from dhow rides at sunset to dolphin watching and scuba diving. "When it comes to incentive groups, who generally only stay for four or five days, continues Mohamed Ben Abderrahamane, Unless there's a specific request, we'll go around Muscat. We organise a city tour, of course, a mini-cruise on a dhow at sunset, and water sports activities if necessary, but above all we take them to the mountains, along the route of the forts, and give them the chance to spend a night in the desert. They'll love it!".

A revisited Bedouin tent camp - Desert Night Camp - is set in the middle of the Wahiba Desert. In the evening, as the sun sets, silence invades this vast sea of sand undulating with honey-coloured dunes. In the early morning, a camel ride offers the experience of immensity before returning to Muscat.

Five UNESCO World Heritage-listed irrigation systems, the oldest of which could date back to 500 AD, carry pure water from Jebel Akhdar to the villages around Izki and Nizwa. The purpose of each falaj is to ensure that this precious resource is shared fairly.

Ethnic chic in the desert

So by car, in a 4×4 to be precise, and heading south for the desert, the real one, the big one, the Arabian desert that opens onto the "desert of deserts", sublimely described by Wilfred Thesiger. The road is a little long until you reach the first dunes, but you forget all about it when you suddenly find yourself in the middle of this mineral universe, with its subtle colours ranging from pale yellow to dark brown, from old pink to the deepest of the indigos that colour the distant mountains on the horizon. The 4×4 pitches a little on the soft sand, but that doesn't impress anyone, especially as the famous camp, Desert Nights Camp, lies at the end of the track. Instead of tents, it's more like bungalows, 26 in all, spread around a central unit. All very comfortable, with a touch of contemporary chic. It's a real pleasure, even at night, when the big fires are lit and, from the top of the dune, you discover a sky studded with thousands of stars and covered by a Milky Way, a Milky Way that only desert people are still lucky enough to be able to marvel at. The next morning, it's a short camel ride before setting off again for Muscat, passing through valleys with canalised torrents that cling to the sides of the mountains to water a few clusters of oases. Sometimes they get stuck in canyons known as wadis, giving rise to small lakes of crystal-clear water that are a delight to dive into.

1 - Just a few minutes by boat from Stone Town, the capital of Zanzibar, Changgu Island is also known as "Prison Island". However, its penitentiary, converted into a hospital for travellers in quarantine, has never held criminals. Today, a colony of giant tortoises roams freely on the island.

2 - Infinite beauty is sometimes rooted in a pile of filth: Zanzibar has turned its 'ebony wood' - the black slave trade - into a source of wealth.

3 - A little about Oman and India are found in Swahili architecture, with sublimely sculpted doors whose finesse describes the social standing of the house's owner.

4 - Sultan Bargash modernised Stone Town at the end of the 19th century. Witness the "house of wonders", a "high-tech" venue for receptions at the time, complete with lift and electricity.

Zanzibar, a fantasy for literary souls

And then there will be one last look at Muscat and the silhouette of the great mosque before the airport and the plane that will take you in a few hours to that name, that fantasy: Zanzibar. This myth has attracted, even if only in dreams, all the poets, writers, explorers and intellectuals of the Western world, in addition to a few bandits, on the fringes of the salons of European capitals. The Monfreids, the Livingstones, the Stanleys... It is even said that Rimbaud once thought of putting down his windy shoes and Kipling his pen there.

Even today, stopping off for a few days in Stone Town, the archipelago's capital, is more of a literary endeavour than an ordinary tourist destination. Later on, we'll be off to one or other of the very top-of-the-range resorts which, in terms of the blue sea, luxury and quality of service, are as good as those on Mauritius; but that will be later, after these few days - which could almost be described as Rimbaldian - spent in the mysteries of the Stone Town.

Why Stone Town? Because the houses in this tiny labyrinthine city are made primarily of coral or limestone. And as this type of material does not withstand the apocalyptic monsoons very well, almost everything is quite damaged. Which, strangely enough, gives it a crazy charm, a juice that no decorator could reproduce. Moss here, old rusty metal sheets there, doors that have managed to retain their character after so much water and sun, rickety alleys where only pedestrians, bicycles, scooters and a few handcarts venture. Above it all, freshly-painted balconies jut out almost touching their neighbours, such are the narrowness of the streets. Some are blinded by moucharabiehs, as if to remind us that Zanzibar is Muslim and that before gaining its independence in December 1963, it was under Portuguese, English and German influence, among others, and was also annexed by the Sultanate of Oman in 1698, which even made it its capital at the expense of Muscat in 1832.

Girofe, cinnamon, Pepper, nutmeg... the spice farms will take you on a journey of enchanting scents.

From 1862 onwards, Zanzibar became a sultanate in its own right, with a succession of 11 princes. Zanzibar was really something. A perfect strategic position off the African coast, a thriving trade in gold and spices, but above all, and far less gloriously, an extremely lucrative slave market. Between 1830 and 1876, the date of the official end of the ebony trade, which obviously continued after its abolition, no fewer than 600,000 unfortunate people were auctioned here. Right next to the square where the sales took place, now occupied by an Anglican church, you can visit a slave house with a vaulted cellar, practically without any openings, where too many men and women were chained up as they were about to become "property of".

Opposite the building, another emotional moment is provided by an extremely powerful sculpture-monument by Swedish artist Clara Sörnäs, created in 1997. It consists of five Africans, heads bowed, standing, chains around their necks, waiting, and placed in a simple pit. Almost a hole. Above them, a solitary tree adds to the drama. It's so talented, so strong, it's almost more moving than the slave house itself.

Late afternoon, Traditional dhows take tourists out at sunset, just as the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean begin to glow.

How, after all that, can you return to these streets with a light heart, where life moves slowly? This is the tour de force of this magical city, which forces you to put your feelings aside and take a seat on a stone palaver bench with the patina of thousands of buttocks and at least as many smouldering discussions. Then there's the laughter of children playing in patios hidden by sublime doors - there are around 500 of them left in the city - veritable works of art inspired by Indian aesthetics. Finally, there are the timeless stalls, and in the evening, under the random lights, the shadows of black-veiled women who come from nowhere to go who knows where, without even glancing at the spellbound foreigner. Zanzibar should only be photographed in black and white, or even sepia, even if a few colourful dresses recall the saris of India or the colours of Africa, neither of which is very far away. In the heavy air of the equator, there are tons of nostalgia, of failed dreams, of fortunes made and lost, and perhaps, when night falls, the souls of characters from the past who have never been able to let go still wander.

Zanzibar can't be conquered like that. Zanzibar is sophisticated and difficult to grasp. Indians, Arabs, Africans, Europeans... all styles, all influences, all ways of thinking, whether in the architecture or in the way of looking at life, cohabit here. You'll see this in the market, a sort of stifling spice hall - saffron, curry, cardamom, ginger, cloves... - set up under a red tin roof. You'll also find it in the gastronomy blended with Indian or African flavours, and finally you'll meet it near the port, on the terrace of this restaurant frequented mainly by foreigners, and which bears the name Mercury, after one of the country's most famous children, a hallucinating rock star of the 80s.

Zanzibar, a veritable myth that has been immersed in the subconscious of writers since the 19th century... Its name reveals the scent of adventure, has a taste for mystery, and magically reveals images of Africa mixed with the Orient. Even today, the maze of its narrow streets stirs the imagination of travellers.

Don't hesitate to get lost in the labyrinth of Stone Town. As you stroll along, you come across an old merchant's house with a richly carved balcony, a centuries-old palaver bench, and everywhere houses with decrepit walls yet decorated with sumptuous doors. The charm works and your mind inevitably begins to wander.

A Queen hit? A kind of magic

Dusk arrives. The Mercury's speakers, on demand, play a hit by the singer of the all-too-forgotten group Queen, children play football on the beach, boats with white triangular sails sail gently past and the pot-bellied dhows, these vessels with a curious profile hesitating between the Asian junk and the Portuguese caravel, moor up. They are laden with tourists, some of whom have just returned from the island that can be seen off the coast, a confetti of white sand that was originally intended to house a prison but which, it is said, has never seen a single inmate. "Too beautiful for a prison", a perceptive governor is said to have once judged...

1 - Generally, these poles, These huge bundles laid by the roadside are a wildly artistic composition. Apart from that, they will end their lives as monsoon-proof house frames.

2 - A bit of Africa and a lot of the OrientOr is it the other way round? In its architecture, in its language, in the diversity of its communities, Zanzibar shortens the distance separating the shores of the Gulf of Oman from the coast of Tanzania.

"Zanzibar is a fashionable destination, says Maturaf Maanfou, Director of Regional Tours & Safaris. In general, groups stay two or three nights and take a few variations on a typical programme, including a chic cocktail party at the Serena, the palace inaugurated by the Aga Khan, a day at sea on a local dhow with stops and games on dreamy islets, and of course a guided tour of the town, the spice garden and a salute to the colobus monkeys, a species endemic to the forests of Zanzibar. The rest of the time is spent in one or other of the resorts on the seafront."

And then there's the Indian Ocean in all its splendour. With all the coconut palms, white sand, turquoise sea, sunset cocktails and magnificently garnished buffets you could wish for. With fewer crowds, Zanzibar is still untouched by mass tourism. But that may not last...