Oman has a deep and rich culture that extends back for thousands of years, embracing such popular legends as the stories of Sinbad the sailor(He is believed to hail from Sohar). Oman is also the source of frankinscense which figures so prominently in the Nativity story of the Christian Bible. Oman's history goes back to the time early civilization in the region known as the fertile crescent. Cuneiform writing on tablets from Mesopotamian mention a mountain rich in copper in a land called Majan, which is believed to be somewhere near the modern day city of Sohar in Oman. Here copper has been mined for 3000 years.

The people of Oman are descended from tribes in Northern Arabia (Nazarene) who migrated to Oman in the fourth millennium BC, and from the Hadramaut region of Yemen. The latter was prompted by the collapse of a great dam in Mirab built in the first millennium B.C.

In 630, Oman embraced Islam just 8 years after it was revealed to the world by the prophet Muhammed. Over the next several hundred years, Omna expanded its commercial holdings extending all the way to Zanzibar. By the time the Portuguese arrived in the early 1500s, Omanis were trading from India to Africa. After occupation by the Portuguese for 130 years, the Al Yaruba Imams reunited the country and established a period of economic prosperity. It was during this period that the great forts like Nizwa and Jabrin were build. In 1744, the Al Yarubas were replaced with the Al Bu Saids, the dynasty that now runs to the present day, making Oman the longest lived nation state in the Gulf.

By the mid 1800s Oman was once again a thriving commercial empire due in large part to the efforts of Sayyid Said bin Sultan (a.k.a. Said the Great) who ruled from 1803-1856, the longest lived of the Al Busaidis. Said spent most of his time ruling his empire from Zanzibar, which he made his home & capital. But after his death in 1856 came economic downturn that led to stagnation and despair and did not end until 1970. It was then that Said bin Taimur turned over the leadership to his son Qaboos, who set about the gargantuan task of revitalising his country. Prior to 1970, there were no schools, newspapers, radio stations and only 10km of paved roads in the country. Qaboos based his development on a series of 5 year plans to provide general infrastructure--housing, hospitals, schools, roads, electricity, communications and so on.