Al Mudhaireb Village

Al Mudhaireb (المضيرب) is a village in Al Qabil of Al Sharqiyah region of Oman that can be reached from the old Muscat-Sur road, located between Ibra and Bidiyah.

We recently stopped there on our way to Wadi Bani Khalid and Seeq, and found that is it a nice place to stop-over for people traveling in that direction. The village is famous for being home to Al Harthy (also spelled Al Harthi) tribe, and like most Omani villages there is lots of historical and cultural attractions to see.

One of the first places we stopped at is the “Cultural and Heritage House” (although one of these words is misspelled inside the  house :D). This was probably a house of one of the sheikhs (village leaders) that has been transformed to a museum. It is quite nice because, despite being renovated, it still hasn’t lost its historical feel and once you get it you feel like you’ve traveled back in time a few decades ago. Unfortunately, this “feel” is lost with some of the other recently renovated forts and castles in Oman!

Just behind the Cultural and Heritage House, you can walk a bit uphill where you will be within the ruins of the old village of Al Mudhaireb. The ruins are quite interesting and you can explore the area, but if you keep going uphill you will see one of the many watchtowers of Al Mudhaireb. The view from that watchtower is quite nice and once there you will see that there are half a dozen other watchtowers in Al Mudhaireb. Historically, each quarter of the village had its own watchtower to warn the residents from attacks from other villages/quarters, and there would have been an old quarter under or near-by to each of these watchtowers.

Another thing you can explore in Al Mudhaireb is the town watchtower (Bait Al Burj بيت البرج), just opposite the Cultural and Heritage House. This watchtower also gives you panoramic views of the village and its surrounding date palm farms, but it also has some interesting interior designs which facilitate ventilation of the tower and also provide defensive spots for people inside the tower.

We thought Al Mudhaireb is a great place to stop on our way to Wadi Bani Khalid and quite enjoyed our time there. You should definitely consider stopping there if you’re on your wadi to Bidiyah or Wadi Bani Khalid, we are sure you will like it too.

How to get to Al Mudhaireb:
Al Mudhaireb is about 20 kms after Ibra and 30 kms before Bidiyah, just take the turn off the highway once you see the signpost.

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