Oman
Oman (officially Sultanate of Oman) is a country in Western Asia, with its capital at Muscat, and is home to roughly 5.3M people.
Arabic is the official language; the currency in circulation is Omani rial (ر.ع.); people from here are called Omani.
- »Oman is the oldest continuously independent state in the Arab world.
- »Its aflaj irrigation channels have distributed water by gravity for well over a thousand years.
Oman straddles the Tropic of Cancer.
Oman touches three neighbours: Saudi Arabia to the west, United Arab Emirates to the northwest and Yemen to the southwest. Directions run from one centre to the other.
Muscat is hemmed in between the Hajar mountains and the sea, with 16th-century Portuguese forts still guarding its harbour.
312,837 km² (120,787 sq mi), 70th largest of 198 countries and territories on file, almost exactly the size of Poland.
Population 5,281,538, 124th of 198 on file. That averages 17 per km² (44 per sq mi).
The national emblem, a khanjar dagger crossed with two swords, sits in the upper hoist. Red is traditional, white stands for peace and the Imamate, green for the Jebel Akhdar mountains.