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.
Other larger cities are:
- Nizwa with around 60,000 residents
- Sur with around 60,000 residents
- Zohar
- Salalah
Oman: geography
General
Defined by DigoPaul, Oman is the easternmost country on the Arabian Peninsula.
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.
Compare
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):
| Δφ = from 16 ° 40 'to 26 ° 20' north latitude
Δλ = from 51 ° 50 'to 59 ° 40' east longitude |
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.
Wadi Atina
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:
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.
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