Oman

Oman: population, cities

Population

According to Countryaah website, Oman has around 3.1 million residents.

Ethnic composition

Approx. 73% Omanis live in Oman, along with Persians, Indians, Baluch and Africans.

Religion

About 88% Muslims live in Oman. The state religion of the country is Ibadite Islam.

About 1.3% of the population are Christians

National languages

Arabic is spoken in Oman.

Capital, other cities

The capital of Oman is Masqat, with its surroundings around 1 million residents. According to Abbreviation Finder, OMN stands for Oman in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym.

Other larger cities are:

• Nizwa with around 60,000 residents
• Sur with around 60,000 residents
• Zohar
• Salalah

Oman: geography

General

Oman is the easternmost country on the Arabian Peninsula. Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Oman.

The northernmost part of Oman borders the Strait of Hormuz, a strait and important link between the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman.

The country is predominantly dry and crossed by desert areas.

Area and land use

Oman covers an area of 309,500 km².

Thereof:

• Fields and fields

  Only about 0.12% of the land is used for agriculture.

• Desert

  South of the Hajar mountain range is the 500 km long gravel desert of Jiddat al-Harasis. To the west of this is the central Arab sand desert Rub al-Khali, one of the driest deserts on earth. The Wahiba sand desert spreads in the east of the country.

• Mountains

  The Hajar Mountains extend around 650 km from the Musandam peninsula in the north to Ras al Hadd in the east of the country.

National borders

Oman shares a common border with:

United Arab Emirates with a length of 410 km,

Saudi Arabia with a length of 676 km,

Yemen with a length of 288 km.

Coastline

Oman has a coast to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea with a length of around 2,090 km.

Tidal range

In Masqat the mean tidal range is 0.5 to 1 m.

The world's highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 m, and at spring tide even over 20 m. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax.

On the German North Sea coast it varies between 1 m and 3 m. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 m, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.

Longitude and latitude

Oman extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Legal time

In Oman, the following applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. without taking summer time into account:

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in Masqat

Masqat lies at a northern latitude of around φ = 23.5 ° (= 23 ° 30 ').

If the declination δ of the sun has the value of 23 ° 30 'N, and so the image point of the sun is exactly above the city, the sun is perpendicular there. That happens exactly on June 21st.

Mountains

Jebel Shams

The highest mountain in the country is the Jebel Shams with a height of 3,009 m.

Other high mountains are:

• Jabal Kawr with a height of 2,960 m
• Rus al Jibal with a height of 2,087 m

Rivers

Wadi Andam

The Wadi Andam River flows south from the Gulf of Oman.

The river Wadi Atina has its source in the south of the country and flows towards the southwest.

Lakes

Umm as-Samim

The Umm as-Samim is a huge salt basin, which is also known as a dangerous quicksand area.

Islands

The following islands are in front of the country or belong to the state elsewhere:

• Masirah
• Al-Hallaniyat

Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Strait of Hormuz

Gulf of Oman

The Gulf of Oman is the northwestern part of the Arabian Sea and stretches from the Strait of Hormuz - the strait to the Persian Gulf - to the Arabian Sea. The gulf is around 560 km long with a width at a typical point of, for example, 200 km. In addition to Oman, the Gulf is bordered by Iran in the north and the United Arab Emirates in the west.

Arabian Sea

The Arabian Sea is part of the Indian Ocean. It lies between the Arabian Peninsula and India. In the northwest it turns into the Gulf of Oman. In addition to Oman, there are also India, Iran and Pakistan on the Arabian Sea.

The well-known cities on this sea are Mumbai (Bombay) in India and Karachi in Pakistan. The salt content of the Arabian Sea is around 3.48%.

Strait of Hormuz (Hormuz)

The approximately 210 km long and 55 km wide Strait of Hormuz is located in the south at the end of the Persian Gulf and is its connection to the Gulf of Oman, which then merges into the Arabian Sea.

This relatively narrow street forms a kind of needle hole for shipping from the oil terminals in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, as well as a large part of the Saudi Arabian shipping traffic. Therefore, this strait is of great geo-strategic importance.