The Jebel al-Akhdar (Oman)

talus slopes are mostly used for the same purpose, except for the terminus of these falaj, where open canals tend to emerge. Dates, vegetables, grains, and fodder crops are the produce of agriculture at these lower elevations in this hot, arid country. The higher parts of the Jebel al-Akhdar, usually above 1,800 meters elevation, have significantly lower temperatures; on the plateaus, lows of -10? C have been observed in winter, and summer temperatures average in the 20? C range. Precipitation falls primarily in winter, but no systematic records have yet been collected. Reports of snow lying on the ground appear exaggerated. Seepage from canals or aquifers may freeze occasionally, and that was erroneously assumed by distant, untrained observers to be snow. In this cool, relatively humid climate, temperate-zone vegetables and fruit trees have been grown since time immemorial and were later followed by alfalfa as fodder for the few local dairy cattle. A specialty crop was roses, the petals of which were distilled to produce rose water that in this century came to be used to flavor cigarettes. The distilleries were fueled by wood obtained from local dwarf oak trees, which probably gave the mountains their green appellation but whose cutting seriously increased deforestation. At lower elevations in wadis on the southern side, much wood was also removed to provide fuel at oil survey and drilling camps during the early days of petroleum exploration in the 1950s and 1960s. Camels and drivers were obtained from local bedouin tribes to carry the wood as well as the export products from the mountains on rough trails

Ancient history · Archaeology · Geography · Geology · History · Transboundary Water Resource Management · Water management and technologies

• Batinah Coast of Oman

  Open Access•Alexander Melamid•Geographical Review•1990

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