The Hills Have Tombs

Beehive Tombs (the small mounds on the ridge) at Al Ayn, Oman, with Jebel Misht (Comb Mountain) in the background

Continuing in Oman, here is an eerier, but absolutely scenic place to visit, between Nizwa and the UAE Border Post in Jebel Hafeet / Al Ain. These so-called beehive tombs (coz they look like beehives, don’t they?) date back to maybe before the age of the pyramids! But no one knows what they’re actually for, or whether they're really tombs, as no human remains have been found near them.

The place is a 20km detour off the main Nizwa to UAE road. I did the trip without Anu knowing that it needed a detour hehe (or she wouldn’t have said OK). I said, “it’s kinda on the way”, so it ain’t an outright lie either, right?


A closer view of the ancient tombs – it’s like a 5 minute walk from here, but the missus was absolutely against mucking around ancient tombs, especially with the young one around, so this was the closest we got


Another view of the beehive tomb site and Jebel Misht, from where we parked our car …in the middle of a friggin dried up river (wadi). Ya, you'd have to cross the wadi to get there


The typical landscape around the road leading to Al Ayn, Oman


Pyramid of the Scorpion King, from the Mummy Returns – just kidding, it’s a hill near the beehive tomb site in Al Ayn, but it sure looks like the pyramid, doesn’t it?