Jebel Harim (“Mountain of Women”)

Jebel Harim (“Mountain of Women”) is the highest peak in the Musandam Peninsula at 2,087 m, about 35 minutes’ drive from Khasab on a graded mountain road. The summit itself is flat and has a military radar, so the viewpoint is 200 m below the top, looking out over the entire peninsula, the Strait of Hormuz and — on a clear winter day — the Iranian coast 50 km away. The route up the mountain follows the Sayh Plateau at 1,400 m, which is 8–10°C cooler than Khasab. The plateau is terraced with old stone fields, most of them abandoned when the population moved down to the coast in the 1960s. There is a 2,000-year-old petroglyph on the south side of the plateau, showing hunters with bows and a herd of ibex. The driver will stop for 15 minutes if you ask. The mountain is also a working geological site. The limestone is full of marine fossils — nautilus, brachiopods, sea lilies — from the Eocene, when this region was under a shallow sea. The fossils are visible at the viewpoint and on the drive up. The mountain is reached on a half-day or full-day 4x4 safari from Khasab. The full-day version (9–10 hours) includes the Khor Najd viewpoint and a swim stop at the pebble beach at the bottom of the descent.