Hamriyah Petroglyphs

Hamriyah is one of the villages just on the outskirts of Muscat - this is also where the old Yiti road starts, the one which was used before the current coastal road was built. This is a bit of forgotten part of Muscat and the wadis and mountains beyond the village are not "popular" meaning they are pretty untouched. When we visited, we met a local family there, who had plenty of beehives and goats to take care of and this was all, not an other single soul was around.

The hike can be shorter or longer - depends on your time and mood. To walk the whole wadi takes 5-6 hours and it is a bit over 7 km - we did the short version, roughly half the distance and the time.

Petroglyphs in Oman date back to 5000 years and they can be found in Musandam, Jabal Akhdar, Bandar Khayran - and apparently around Muscat. Well, guess they can be found all over, just not all of them are known or registered. Petroglyphs are rock carvings (rock paintings are called pictographs) made by pecking directly on the rock surface using stone chisel and hammer stone.

The biggest collection of petroglyphs are around 1 hour into the hike but when we ventured into the wadi we saw more smaller areas with carvings.

The hike is not marked officially, but we could see yellow dots and arrows here and there. Once inside the wadi there is really one way though :).

Starting point: 23.5513,58.5743 For the rest of the trek check out the map - scroll to the end! for the big loop check out this wikiloc trail.
Difficulty: Medium hike, since it is not marked. Mostly easy stroll, there  were few places where bit of scrambling was required. It is ok for slightly older kids.

Car: salon car is ok

Time: the short loop can be done around 2 hours

Other: be aware that there is no cellphone reception in this area !  

The unassuming parking with the beehives - you need to start to walk towards the left, you will see a path

 

The views were stunning, we just followed the direction of the next pin and crossed whatever needed to be crossed

It must had been some sort of settlement in the past.

Dry waterfall - this is where the Big Rock with the beautiful petroglyphs are

We ventured into the wadi - it was pretty dramatic with all the twist and turns!

There were more carvings here and there 

Reality vs Intsagram :)