Last weekend, as well as exploring Arabian fotresses, I got to wander around a couple of the many deserted villages in Oman. The country was generally poor and almost completely cut off from the modern world until the 70s, when oodles of the black stuff and a new Sultan educated in the UK changed everything. Suddenly, with cash flowing in, people abandoned their mud houses to build shiny new houses in the suburbs, leaving whole neighbourhoods crumbling - very atmospheric, but a bit eerie too ...
In places like Nizwa and Bahla, even the old city walls are still standing, but rather than spend money on keeping them in good nick, people are just building around them or putting up lovely new concrete blocks to fill the gaps.
In Al Hamra, the old city is almost completely abandoned, with maybe one house in 100 still inhabited (you can tell them from the rusty AC units hanging out of the mud wall). Anyone is free to wander around the rest of the town, nosing around dwellings that sometimes still have shelves, furniture and ornate doors and window shutters.
I guess it's very Western in a way to romanticise the old, and it's certainly more comfortable to live somewhere with no bugs and AC, but there were so many little places that I could imagine calling home - maybe it's better that they're left rather than pulled down and replaced by modern monstrosities, and does mean that people like me can visit and, with a little imagination, be transported back to ye olde days ...
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