Nizwā

Nizwa lies in the interior of Oman, where oasis agriculture depends on aflaj irrigation channels. It was a centre of Ibadi religious learning and at various times the seat of an imam, linking the surrounding valleys to the political life of Oman. Falaj Daris, one of the region's notable channels, carries water for cultivation.

In the mid-seventeenth century Imam Sultan bin Saif of the Ya'ruba dynasty built the great circular fort at Nizwa. The fort served as a residence and seat of local government as well as a defensive structure. Its construction belonged to a period in which the Ya'ruba imams consolidated authority and challenged Portuguese positions on the Omani coast.