Wednesday 19 January 2011

Muscat Moments 22 - # 18/2011


"A jaunt in the jebel"...........a village at around 2,200 meters high in the Jebel Akhdar (the Akhdar Mountain chain): over the years the villagers have laboriously constructed a huge series of terraces on which they grow their crops.  There is plentiful moisture and running water is distributed via an ingenious system of water channels that serve the terraces. Today, main sewerage and mains water pumping systems are being installed under the narrow alleys between the houses. Electricity comes via a chain of pylons built across the ridges and gulleys of the mountains. Mobile phone reception is perfect.

4 comments:

  1. I have of course never been to Muscat, but I have a feeling that your different photos perfectly illustrate the atmosphere I imagine!

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  2. Those terraces are incredible. I'm used to seeing terracing in Italy but not on the same scale. Strangely I've always been drawn to arid landscapes and am loving this.

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  3. Awesome, isn't it?
    Love the terraces and the gherkiny shaped rocks in the foreground.
    If there is so much moisture how come the vegetation is so sparse and dry-looking?

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  4. @Freefalling......I think perhaps because there is no soil. It's pure rock. The crops are grown in soil beds. Don't ask me how they create that! The moisture/rain is captured in cisterns, or it just runs off and rushes away down to the sea through the wadis.

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