(See photos below)
This was my first time visiting Jebel Shams, the grand canyon of Arabia (see second picture). Jebel shams, which translates to the sun mountain is 2,818 meters above sea level. Wanna know why it’s called the sun mountain? Well, due to it’s high peak, it’s the first place to receive sunlight before the rest of Oman. I know, that’s kinda cool right? Well, check this out. Cause of how high it is, the temperature during the summer reaches 20 degrees when at the top, which is what Oman’s temperature is like during winter time. What’s the temperature like during the winter up the mountain you ask? well, a cool 0 degrees! The north summit is the highest point, reaching 3,000 meters above sea level, although a military base occupies it so it’s restricted
Jebel shams is around 3 and a half hours from Muscat city, so it’s a bit of a drive. We actually drove to Nizwa first for a little break before carrying on to the mountain. I won't lie, I was exhausted by the time I got home. It was a very long day. I think we made way at around 7am and didn’t get back home till 9pm.
The drive up the mountain is a dirt track although there are two paths you can take. The easy path and the…not so easy path, I’m sure you can guess which one we took. The not so easy path lead us to the Grand Canyon spot which was quite cool.
Check out the first photo, can you see the little village? Well, if you can’t, that just shows you the scale of this mountain. There are quite a few villages scattered on this mountain, like Jebel Akhdar. There are also a few hotels here incase you don’t want to camp, but I always recommend camping cause you’ll be back in your comfy bed in a day or two.
One thing that really blew me away was the sheer size of this meteoric mountain. You can also hike here, which is something I would love to do once the weather gets better. I love a good hike, especially if it takes all day to do, and quite a lot of people do the hike. The hike is located on the second summit, the south summit.
One thing I will always recommend people doing is going as a group rather than on your own. Please never do these trips by yourself!
