Salalah is the capital of the exceptionally beautiful Southern Omani region called Dhofar. Taqah is a coastal town about 20 miles east of Salalah. Sultan Qaboos was actually born there and it is also the location of where his mother is buried.
There are many Wilayat’s in Oman. The term means “province or directly translates as “that which is governed”. Salalah, Taqah, Muscat, Seeb, Muttrah, are just a few of the Wilayats I’ve visited and will write about.
We stopped at a castle in the heart of Taqah town. The castle is well-kept and a fun historical place to explore. The number of decorated rooms filled with artifacts and furniture from the time period offer an attractive glimpse into the heritage of the province.
As I approached the entrance, a glimpse of the rich maritime culture of the Indian Ocean was revealed in the ornately-carved wooden shutters. Zanzibar is famous for these types of double-door entrances to residences. A man who looked like he was Indian seemed like he was going to greet us. I think he just wanted to ogle us as it seems that Americans are an unusual sight to see in Oman. I took a photograph of him. It seems that a lot of people here are curious to look at us and what we are doing. They want to know who we are and why we are a world away from our own culture or something similar to it. As we stepped over the one-foot high frame on the floor (a part of the Zanzibar doorway) into the first room of the castle we experienced the greeting room. The greeting room is a.k.a This room was lined on both sides with benches adorned with colorfully-decorated large pillows.
Beyond the greeting room is a courtyard that offers a few different paths to follow. The first thing that caught my eye was the well. I thought it looked like a place where people would be hung by their necks in the old days similar to other historical castles I have visited. However, the area was actually just an old water well for the household. I peek into the hallway on the left. There are several rooms. Each with different uses from the past. It was fun to explore the weaponry room, a store, an old food storage room, and a storage room for wood to make fires. The ministry of Tourism in Oman did a good job with filling the castle with artifacts that represented the lifestyles of the people in this castle. It was very cool to see all the props in the different rooms as they may have been placed in the past.
I climb the steps leading to the adobe-style rooms on the second floor. Taqah in Arabic is the word to describe an aperture or a window into an outside world. Rounded arch shapes are often referred to as a taqah. In the second-floor rooms there were some beautiful arched-windows. I wonder why this is not a very popular aesthetic in the States because it is so pleasing to my eyes. I really love all of the Arabian architecture here.
The adobe-hued castle was built in the 19th-century as a private residence and later became the home of the governor (Wali).
My favorite part of the castle was climbing to the roof where the view of the town was nice.
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