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MINES AROUND SOHAR
written by NICOLA SHIPWAY
“Nearby is a striking archway consisting of rock that is granite-hard in places, crumbly as sugar elsewhere”

Pick up any guidebook to Oman and you’ll likely find a reference to copper in the introductory historical overview. Today the sultanate benefits from a different naturally occurring commodity present underground, but thousands of years ago it was copper that lured men to mine. Given this heritage and the fact that mining continued, on and off, until the last century, it is no surprise that small pockets of Oman bear copper-related scars, the landscape pocked by open pits and riddled with shafts. Among the country’s most famous ancient mining sites is Wadi Jizzi, one of the few wadis to pass east to west across the Hajar mountains. Wadi Jizzi ends on the coast at the once great port city of Sohar, described by the 10th-century geographer Istakhri as the most populous and wealthy town in Oman. “It is not possible to find on the shore of the Persian Sea nor in all the lands of Islam a city more rich in fine buildings and foreign wares,” he wrote. Today Sohar is a sprawling place of industry rather than fine buildings; even the fort, which contains a museum and overlooks the sea, is sadly frayed round the edges, although when it reopens next year after extensive renovation it will no doubt be worth a look.

rich deposits
Extraction and trade

At least part of this city’s former affluence derived from the brisk trade in the copper that had been extracted from mines in the interior. Ancient civilisations were able to use copper because it was discovered in its native or uncombined form, essentially ready to use and easily identifiable, either reddish-brown or weathered to a blue-green colour. This substance was easy to work – copper is malleable, the more so after being heated or tempered. Modern societies obtain copper from ore, the rock or mineral that contains enough metal to make it worth extracting. Traditionally copper ore is dug either from open pits or from mines that tunnel beneath the earth’s surface, after which the metal is recovered from the ore using a variety of physical and chemical processes.

Metal detecting
The oxblood lake

Even until the 1980s copper was extracted from a mine outside Sohar, which today stands empty and eerie. It is astonishing of course, but foreboding and undoubtedly dangerous, too. Some of the predominantly mousy rock all around is periodically shot through with colour – rust, mustard, salmon pink, teal. The area must be perforated with mining galleries, for in places are abandoned, boarded-up mine shafts. There is a massive cavern in the ground, too, in which it is possible to glimpse a noxious-looking lake at the bottom, the water tinged oxblood red. Nearby is a happier sight, a striking archway consisting of rock that is granite-hard in places, crumbly as sugar elsewhere. Nevertheless, the whole area is quiet and desolate, its sinister atmosphere a reminder that this industry required much of its workforce to risk life and limb in the ground in pursuit of metal.

Ancient ruins
Hiking the walls

The landscape surrounding Sohar is not all dispiriting however. An interesting hike in the country just outside the city takes in Hawra Burgha, a 13th-century stronghold situated on the top of an outcrop. The word hawra is Arabic for ‘white limestone’, while burgha is derived from the Persian word for ‘garden’. The hill that nowadays looks barren would once have supported greenery; the inhabitants of the citadel benefited from a web of water channels that would have enabled them to irrigate their terraces even in the event of a siege. You can still find the remains of these channels today, as well as the remnants of round watchtowers that once punctuated the outer, drystone wall. The climb up to these ruins is fairly strenuous and taxing – this is a steep hill. Allow 15 or 20 minutes to reach the old surrounding wall, which in parts is breached, enabling you to clamber through. Once inside the stronghold there is more scrambling to be done, for the stony ruins of Hawra Burgha are sprawling. The best time to visit is early morning or late afternoon, when the light is soft, the view lovely, and the temperature relatively cool (there is no shade on the top of the hill). Finding Hawra Burgha is something of an adventure because the dual carriageway out of Sohar is currently undergoing roadworks. To get there, take the road inland towards Buraimi from the Falaj al Qabail roundabout in Sohar (follow signposts for the new Crowne Plaza Sohar). Continue on the road to Buraimi until you reach the huge factory chimney stack. At this point, turn round, back towards Sohar – at the present time it is not possible to cross the dual carriageway at the correct point. Continue back for 8km, until you see a mosque with a blue dome on the right. Take this right and follow the track up; you will come to a sign for Wadi Jizzi dam, a structure that is visible from the citadel. Ignore this left-hand turn and continue along the track, crossing the wadi bed, until you see a distinctive outcrop. If you look up you will see the remains of Hawra Burgha – park at the foot of the hill, by the sign stating that this is an archaeological site.