Bidbid Castle

Bidbid is a small town with a population of about 20,000 people, located approximately 40 km from Muscat International Airport, if you travel towards Nizwa.

The Bidbid Castle was built in the 16th century by one of the local tribes. It is situated in Wadi Samail, also known as Samail Gorge, which for a long time was the main route from Muscat to the interior regions of Oman. As a result, several fortifications, walled villages, and watchtowers were erected along the wadi to protect the Omanis from invasion attempts.

The castle consists of a large watchtower on a rocky outcrop, separated from the main castle but connected to it by a single wall. A falaj (an artificial, partially underground water channel) flows right beneath its eastern wall, near an oasis.

Bidbid Castle was one of the first fortifications restored by the State of Oman using original materials in the 1990s. A cannon from the 17th or 18th century still stands guard at the fort. The height of the Bidbid fort walls is about 30 meters. In total, it has 3 towers: the large one you see here, and 2 smaller, more rounded western towers at the back.

“Forty towers once protected this area, and many of them still stand, the most famous being Fanja Tower and Bidbid Fort.” (from “A Brief Guide to Ad Dakhiliyah,” a guide by the Ministry of Tourism).

As a young officer and member of the SAS special forces, future explorer Ranulph Fiennes was sent to Bidbid in 1968 to train people who were to participate in the Dhofar War. The military camp was located on a rock above the wadi. Fiennes describes this episode in his memoirs.

Assigned by the British Army to the army of Sultan Said bin Taimur, he commanded the reconnaissance platoon of the Muscat Regiment and fought against insurgents in Dhofar, for which he was awarded for bravery. The day he arrived in the sultanate was very hot – possibly the hottest time of the year, he recalls. “There was no air conditioning. And the only place we stopped before heading south was Bidbid. In my room in Bidbid, there was a spider, the biggest spider I have ever seen. British spiders are small. So the heat and the spider were my first impressions.”

Sources:

https://miracleoman.travel/adakhiliyah/

https://www.muscatdaily.com/2021/03/23/legend/