BAOBAB GROVE (الباوباب)

We were surprised, same as botanists, to find a small stand of baobab trees gracing the thickets just above the Salalah Plain. These magnificent giants, their trunks sometimes ringed with snails, stand head and shoulders over the more typical Dhofari vegetation and are the only such trees on the Arabian Peninsula. Oman’s Dhofar region has around 200 baobab trees that grow up to a height of 15 meters with a trunk diameter of about two meters. They can be spotted in a tree-filled wadi off the Tawi Atayr–Mirbat road. Some of these trees were estimated to be more than 300 years old.

Parking location: 17.053560N 54.609987E