Bahlā'

Bahla is a fortified oasis in the interior of Oman, its palm groves and mudbrick houses enclosed by an extensive wall. Water reaches its gardens through a falaj system of wells and underground channels, supplemented by the seasonal flow of water. Above the settlement stands a great fort of mud brick on stone foundations, near a Friday mosque with an elaborately carved prayer niche.

From the twelfth century until the end of the fifteenth, the Banu Nabhan dominated central Oman and made Bahla their capital. Their stronghold overlooked the market and the surrounding oasis, while the town wall, gates and watchtowers protected both dwellings and cultivated land. The rulers established relationships with other tribes of the interior from this base. Bahla was also a centre of the Ibadi tradition on which Oman's imamates were founded. Its old neighbourhoods, mosques, audience halls and covered market reveal a settlement shaped by both the irrigation channels and the power of its ruling families.