Bandar Khayran - the petroglyphs trail

Bandar Khayran is a super popular spot and easy to see why - it is less than an hour drive from Muscat, the views are stunning, the beaches are nice, there are great snorkeling and diving sites, there are good hiking options, but it is also enjoyable for people who cannot or does not want to walk too much (check out our post about adventures for mobility challenged visitors here). This was the first place we visited after we moved here - it was great to get out after 2 weeks of quarantine!

This time we came to see the petroglyphs. The trail is sort of marked, not with the official tricolor flag though, but the path is obvious. The site itself is marked with a sign, which is helpful - without it, it would be easy to miss the big rock with the carvings, since it is a bit off the path.

Petroglyphs in Oman date back to 5000 years and they mainly can be found in Musandam, Jabal Akhdar, Bandar Khayran - but there are sites around Muscat as well, so probably they are everywhere. Petroglyphs are rock carvings (rock paintings are called pictographs) made by pecking directly on the rock surface using a stone chisel and hammer stone. It is difficult to say, how old these are in Bandar Khayran - probably some of them are quite contemporary.

After checking out the rock arts, we continued to the beach where we had a bit of swim. It was nice to see the trash bins and the beach was relatively clean, considering how many people come here during the weekend.

Locations: park at the Bandar Khayran viewpoint, the trail starts there around this point. The petroglyphs are at 23.511036, 58.755011 and we swam on this beach (Al Kharzah beach).

It is an easy hike, more or less flat, there are only a few places to climb. It is ok with smaller kids, and you do not need a 4WD car either.