Full-day Wadi AL Hoqain & Al Hazm Fort Tour

Wadi Al Hoqain is about an hour and fifteen minutes' drive from Muscat. Once there, we walk over the Wadi slopes, which are not too high and easy to climb to the end, where the tunnels of Wadi Al Hoqain are. From the tunnels, the hike begins and includes some easy swimming. After that, there is no hike at all; instead, we swim in beautiful, marvelous water pools until we reach the end, at which point we return to our cars.

The great military stronghold of Al Hazm makes full use of traditional Omani defensive features such as the enormous wooden gate, secret escape tunnels, dungeons, cannon towers, slots on the upper floors, and there are troughs above the main entrance to pour boiling oil or honey on the charging attackers. It is located in the town of Al Hazm in the Wilayat of Rustaq in the Al Batinah region, not far from Wadi Al Hoqain.

Imam Sultan bin Saif Al Yarubi, known as "The Land of the Land," the son of Imam Saif bin Sultan, constructed it in 1711 A.D. When he relocated from Rustaq to Al Hazm, he named that city his capital. It houses the tomb in which he was interred. In 1996, the Ministry had it restored.

Architecturally, the fort is distinguished by the absence of any timber in its circular arches linked to cylinders, or columns, that serve as ceilings, and by the width of one wall, or the wall, which is at least three meters wide. The stronghold contains numerous enormous entrances that don't connect to any one hallway and multiple 70-kilometer-range Portuguese and Spanish archeological guns. In addition to secret passages that are each two meters wide and two meters high and spread out on the stronghold's four sides, it is distinguished by the existence of several specific staircases for climbing horses. These routes go out of the fortress and then into the city.

A number of the chambers of Al Hazm Fort were also utilized for teaching the Noble Qur'an, science, and religious knowledge. The fort crosses a falaj, or body of moving water. The fort has a total size of 1600 square meters and measures 40 meters long by 40 meters wide.