Fanja is one hour drive from Muscat. Now you will see a big mosque on your side of the Muscat – Nizwa road. This is a new landmark for the little town. Although they say Marco Polo passed here on his journeys but I couldn’t find any reference about the claim.
A graded road crosses the wadi to north of town. Here we crossed over to the right bank and parked our car. We had already spotted the falaj from the left bank. It slithers along the right bank of the wadi for as long as you can see. A brown linear feature, distinctly manmade but almost camouflaged in the mountain side. We were now aiming for it on foot from our parking spot.
The falaj is dry and largely intact. This is the biggest falaj I have seen in Oman. It is a meter wide and must have been quite deep but is filled with dirt now. We started walking along the falaj. Sometime we walked inside the falaj but in some places there have been landslides and it is impossible to cross. Here we scrambled over the boulders to the other side and continued to walk.
After about a kilometer we came to a bridge on this falaj. It is a beautiful falaj bridge. I was worried about the integrity of the structure in light of poor upkeep. So we got down from the falaj and crossed the tributary wadi over which the bridge spanned. This wadi forms a small narrow canyon just before passing under the bridge which is interesting to explore. After the bridge we could walk only another 500m on the falaj. Here the mountain side had broken the falaj making it impossible to cross. So we climbed down into the wadi. The height of the falaj from the wadi bed keeps increasing because the wadi dips gradually as it flows towards Al Khoud, another hamlet close to Muscat. We cooled our feet in water which was refreshingly cold. Then we turned, to walk back in the wadi bed. On the way we met a friendly local who came to greet us. The family were picnicking under a tree near the falaj bridge we passed from above. We had a chat with him and he told us that the falaj has been dry ever since he remembers. He must be in his 40s.
We drove out of the wadi to visit Fanja Fort, before lunch. The fort is on a hill with modern houses surrounding it. We walked past some beautiful doors. These are unique to Fanja. The fort is in ruins with only few rooms intact. There are some inhabited houses just next to the ruins. You can see the backs of their AC units facing the fort. There are 2 canons placed on concrete platforms. The watch tower at the top is in good condition. It offers a great panorama of the town. You can see wadi from here. The wadi is lined by palm plantations. You can see a mosque towards west amid lush palms. There are more ruins towards south. The new town has expanded on the far side of the wadi. A walk all the way to Al Khoudh through wadi Fanja exploring the old falaj can be a good day trek.
wanderIngY 