Middle East? That's Something We Haven't Done Yet....

I have to be honest, I have never heard of this country before. It has never occurred to me that it existed. And when I did land on it when I turned the globe, I thought to myself, wow... Before even writing this, I searched the web for any information about this country, and admit, it is a beautiful place. 

Ok, so now I'm going to put out an image of the globe, with the country located in red. I would like you to guess what it is, before I move on.

I'll give you some hints:

• The capital is Muscat 
• It is located near Saudia Arabia in the Middle East
• The official language is Arabic 
• And the currency is called Omani Rial (1 euro= 0.42 OM) and it looks like this:

Well , I guess you've probably guessed it by now. So the country we will be looking at today is:

OMAN

THE FLAG:

 The flag was adopted (officially) in 1995, after the red band became wider than it originally once was. The green symbolizes productiveness, the white band symbolizes peace, and the red band is a common color that is found in the countries of this region. Furthermore, the three colors represented on the flag, have a relationship with the Muslim religion. Lastly, the weapons that you see on the top left corner of the flag are the national emblem of Oman.

POLITICAL SITUATION: 

I'm actually not a type of person who likes talking about politics but I find it important that we discuss the political situation in Oman. So here are several key details that you might want to know about this country:

• The country does not have any democracy. Instead Oman is ruled over sultan Qaboos ibn Said.
• A sultan is a Muslim sovereign
• The population of Oman, has a limited amount of freedom of speech, and the country has no constitution (but lets not go into more details... for more information, click here: http://looklex.com/e.o/oman.political.htm)

SIGHTSEEING:

If you want my opinion, Oman is a pretty place. So just in case you are going there,or you might be interested in going there, here are some tourist attractions that might come in handy:

Muscat: The capital of Oman has to offer many great attractions.

1. Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

   2. Royal Opera House

   

Of course, there are so many more attractions in Muscat, but just for the sake of it, I'm only listing two of them; the ones that the tourists preferred the most.

   NIZWA: 

   1. Wadi Ghul- Oman's Grand Canyon

   2.  Nizwa Fort

Ok, so basically I just gave you the attractions that got the most hits. There is just too many to list for you.

FOOD:

Omani dishes is a mix of Arabic, and Indian food. It consists of fish, chicken, lamb and other meats, as well as rice, spices, herbs and marinades.

MASHUAI: A dish that consists of kingfish and lemon rice.

MACHBOOS: It consists of rice with a slight flavor of saffron, cooked over spicy meat

Halwa: A type of sweet food, that is made from wheat, flower, brown sugar, spices or flavors (cinnamon, cardamon, rose water etc) 

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Well I hope you enjoyed your visit to Oman, and remember, if you do have an idea of a country, or you are interested in going to one, then let me know in the comment section below, and I will try my best to use your idea for a future blog post! 

مَع السَلامة 

(ma' al salamah)

It is the formal goodbye in Arabic, and it means "with peace."

Sources:

1. www.mypivots.comhttp://
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Oman
3. looklex.com/e.o/oman.political.htm
4. en.wikipedia.org
5. www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g1940497-Activities-Muscat_Muscat_Governorate.html
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omani_cuisine
7. https://wordadayarabic.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/you-say-goodbye-and-i-say-hello/