'Military Report on the Arabian Shores of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Bahrein, Hasa, Qatar, Trucial Oman and Oman' [‎70] (84/226)

70
chap. ii. geography—oman,
small strip on the east coast of Ras Musandam from Dibab
^ r ,,^ a lba, which is in the administration of the minor
chiefs of the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. . The coastal strip varies in
width from a few hundred yards to several miles.
The second, and chief, physical feature is a mountainous
tract which, commencing at Ras Musandam. runs parallel
to the coast and terminates in the vicinity of Ras -al-Hadd
^ as Musandam to Dibbah this tract is called Ruus-
ul-Jibal; the remainder is known as the Hajar of Oman
and is divided by the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Semail, bej'ond Jebel Akhdar
into Eastern and Western Hajar. Hajar attains its maxi
mum altitude (nearly 10,000 feet) in Jebel Akhdar a
group of lofty mountains south-west of Muscat, enclosing
many valleys of great fertility.
The third and inner belt is a long and uneven south
westward declivity of the high lands which merges into
the desert of the interior.
The country is not regularly divided into administra
tive areas but falls naturally into several distinct geogra
phical tracts. Ruus-ul-Jibal and the two parts of Hajar
form three territorial divisions, and between western Hajar
and the sea is enclosed the long and narrow, but fertile
and populous, maritime district known as Batinah. Im
mediately east of the rich Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Semail the mountains of
Hajar approach the coast in confused masses and beyond
this again the range actually skirts the sea almost as far
as Ras-ul-Hadd. The valleys of eastern Hajar are not so,
numerous, nor, with the notable exception of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Tayin
and Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Semail and their tributaries, generally so popu-
lous as those of western Hajar. Separated ' from the
Batinah by western Hajar lie the two inland districts of
Dhahirah and Oman Proper. Of these Dhahirah slopes
westwards to the Ruba'-uI-Khali, while Oman Proper, a
table-land rising 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the sea and
practically surrounded, by hills, discharge its drainage
towards the Indian Ocean.
Inland of eastern Hajar are the districts of Sharqiyah
and Jaalan. Sharqiyah adjoins Oman Proper, while
Ja alan touches the south-east corner of Sharqiyah at one
end and the Indian Ocean at the other.
•p T ^ T e barren and desolate coast from Ras-al-Hadd to
Ras IS us has no general name. Off it lie Masirah and the
Is una Muria islands. Beyond Ras Nus is the district of