Page 232 - The Tigris Expedition

Wc Search for a Pyramid and Find Mahan
incredible seaside castles. His main palace was in Muscat. Soon
afterwards the lowlands ended and bizarre mountain formations
again reached the water’s edge. By now we were close enough to
Muscat to see ships at anchor and others heading for port. We were
glad to take a tow from the dhow for fear of more collisions.
Shortly, countless city lights were lit on the coastal plateaux and in
the valleys. Way ahead the night twinkled with navigation lights
and ships in increasing numbers, so many that we began to feel
uncomfortable. Muscat was clearly a busy modern port.
Again we were reminded that we were living in a changing
world. The Sultanate of Oman formed a large portion of the
Arabian peninsula, some twenty times larger than Kuwait, yet it
had until quite recently been one of the least known territories in the
world. The country had been closed to all foreign visitors until
seven years ago, when the present totalitarian ruler, Sultan Qaboos,
put his own father in prison and began to modernise the country.
He started by building roads and allowing the first automobiles to
be imported. Wc were yet to learn, however, that in spite of every
evidence of economic boom and building activity in the immediate
vicinity of Muscat, tourists were still not admitted to any part of the
country. The only foreigners of any category allowed ashore were
those approved by the Sultan personally.
As night fell on us the contours of a large rock island with a
lighthouse rose ahead. In front of it was the cargo ship anchorage
with several vessels awaiting their turn to enter Muscat harbour, or
perhaps some were too big to get in. In a renewed radio contact we
made it clear that unless we were at least permitted to anchor among
the cargo ships, the current would carry us far beyond Muscat with
no possibility of returning next morning. We were finally permit­
ted to anchor with the other vessels. But neither Said nor we could
reach bottom in deep water outside, so when the dhow headed for
the harbour entrance we quietly followed and ended up by our­
selves inside, at anchor in the midst of a most picturesque group of
dhows. Dhows from all surrounding countries, although in the
starlight they looked like the silhouettes of a fleet of Viking ships.
It is hard to say who were most surprised at break of day when we
and everybody else in the harbour woke up to discover what was
next to us. Black, brown and pale-faced dhow-sailors from Africa,
from the Arabian peninsula, from Pakistan and India gazed at us,
and we at them, as we tumbled out of our respective sleeping quar­
ters to the tiny balconies with a round hole in the floor that hung
outboard beside the stern of all our small vessels and permitted
199