Blog 7 - Misfaht Al Abreyyn

Misfaht Al Abreyyn (there are many different spellings of the name)

The village, which is about 500 years old in its origins, is often referred to as the most beautiful village in Oman. Like in many other villages, the residents began to move from the traditional - but uncomfortable and in need of a lot of maintenance - stone and mud houses to modern concrete buildings next to the old village 30 to 40 years ago. In most cases, the old part of the village is simply left to decay - here in Misfaht Al Abreyyn, some residents wanted to avoid this and had the idea of preserving the old buildings through tourism. In recent years, several guest houses and coffee shops have been established in Misfat, and day tourism has increased massively - it is now almost on the verge, but has been set back again due to Covid.

We spent two nights at "Misfah Old House" in a room with Arabic furnishings. The owner's family was among the first to implement this preservation concept. We can really recommend a stay there. The food is also very good, although it has an Arabic touch, it is quite suitable for Europeans.

In addition to the old houses, the date palm grove is worth seeing in Misfaht, where irrigation is still done with falajs (each owner is allocated water for half an hour every 8 days). The village and the grove are located on a steep slope, which means climbing many steps - there are no cars in the village, everything must be carried by humans or donkeys.

Although the date palm dominates here today as a cash crop, for almost 30 years only lemons were grown, which - unlike dates - were an important source of income for the residents. However, the so-called "lemon cancer" has permanently destroyed the plantations, so the switch to date palms was the only way out. In recent years, the Omani government has been trying to promote lemon cultivation again by planting more resistant varieties.

One of the owners of "Misfah Old House" took us on a tour of the plantations and the village, which was quite strenuous due to the heat and the steps, but it was highly interesting and we learned many new things about life here.