Jebel Shams

In the far west of Jebel Akhdar, the finest and highest region of the Western Hajar Mountains is Jebel Shams.

Oman's (indeed, Arabia’s) highest mountain at 3,084m (although this appears to be uncertain), Jebel Shams is approachable from various directions, but the trail from the “plateau” to the west (Explorer guide W4) is the easiest and best known.

It is still a long, demanding 18km, 10-12hr round trip with 1,000m of altitude gain, so a big walk albeit a generally steady climb on generally reasonable paths.

The path climbs, for quite some way above the canyon rim, before it heads off to join the summit ridge, with its huge drops into Wadi al Sahtan to the north-east, which it follows for a steady climb to the summit.

It barely needs saying that that the views from the summit are huge and stupendous.

Oman Trekking (Explorer) and Adventure Trekking in Oman (Anne Dale and Gerry Hadwin) have worthwhile sections on some of these walks. Recommended. Find relevant books on Amazon.

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For more information and photos, including detailed practical information and some warnings, see our Western Hajar Mountains walk page. See also our Jebel Akhdar page.