Wadi Bani Habib - the abandoned village of Jabal Akhdar

The hike to the abandoned village of Wadi Bani Habib is very popular in Jabal Akhdar - easy to reach, it is short and offers stunning views. We tried last December but since it was weekend, the crowd was that big that we gave up. This time though we went during the week and we had the whole place to ourselves.

There are two villages : one of them right off the stairs leading from the car park to the wadi and the other one is a little further away, on the other side of the wadi. The path is marked and easy - if you just want to walk probably you can be done in an hour. We took our time to explore the old buildings so it took much longer. You can also make it a round trip if you walk back through the gardens and take the stairs on the other side of the car park. Or venture further into the wadis from any of the villages for a longer hike - there are marked paths from both of them. The blue/green marks leading from the first village to the wadi were part of the Oman Ultramarathon path apparently. 

Although the path is easy and for the steepest part comfy stairs are build, one can imagine how difficult it was to approach these settlements a few decades ago - and this is the reason why they got abandoned. Residents moved to next to the main road and the new Wadi Bani Habib developed from there.

There are many abandoned places in Oman but it feels impossible to grow bored of them. Somehow this place felt even more special - although the houses are scrambling the village felt somewhat alive . Back home we were searching the net to find out more about this place and came across this old Omanobserver article about the painted rooms of Wadi Bani Habib - we did not run into any of them so they might be gone by now but if you are here, make sure you search for them! It just underlies that this is indeed a special place ! The painted rooms seem to be a thing in these old villages - I found this interesting blog post with more of them - we will certainly keep an eye out for these in the future!

For location type Wadi Bani Habib in google maps and follow the usual tricolour sign for the walk. No off-road driving is needed however only 4wd are allowed up to Jabal Akhdar. Easy hike, toddler friendly. You can read more about us exploring Jabal Akhdar here! The overview of all hiking trail we know of in this area is here.

The view from the stairs, right after the car-park

The second village

All three villages in one picture - the old mud-brick houses blend in perfectly 

The wadi is lush and green and home of many terraces.

We drove a little around to explore the area after the hike - this is the summer "house" of the Qatari emir. Not ready though, it has been under construction for 3 years. Stunning location!

This white mosque looked just picture perfect - it is close to Anantara, you can park the car at 23.0662,57.6749 and walk to the mosque while enjoying the stunning views.

Different time of the day brings different colors..

An other dramatic view of Jabal Akhdar