A Weekend 'Whale'-Spent at the Natural History Museum, Muscat

It was a Saturday morning, a weekend, and there began my daughter's complaints of getting bored at home. So after a quick breakfast, I took her to a nearby green space, where she played for some time, and as we settled down on the lawn to relax, we spotted a board that pointed towards the Natural History Museum. This was the very museum she was telling me about all the while, during her vacations, but I couldn't locate it on the map. She had been there with her summer camp friends. I asked her if she wanted to go there again with me and in return she could be my guide. She agreed.

The signboard near the entrance to the Museum 

Housed in the premises of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture (MOHC) in Al-Khuwair, the Natural History Museum shares space along with another museum building viz. Sayyid Faisal Bin Ali Museum and a Library building. The Sayyid Faisal Bin Ali Museum showcases the fort architecture and traditional artillery, the glimpses of which, we found in the premises. On display were a traditional dhow and a group of cannons. My daughter was not interested in them and she dragged me towards the Natural History Museum.

Left Inset: The Library Building
Middle Inset: The Dhow and the cannons
Right Inset: Entrance to Sayyid Faisal Bin Ali Museum

There was a group of foreign visitors exploring the museum and we followed them in. The arched entrance, of the Museum, was marked with an emblem of a Caracal Lynx (a type of a desert cat) representing Oman's Natural wildlife. Near the entrance, we found a trunk of an old fossil tree about 260 million years old, and that was discovered in Al Wasta region. Thereafter, at the counter we collected our tickets and the information booklet, after making a minimal cash payment of 400 Baisa, wherein the entry fees for kids was 100 Baisa and for adults was 300 Baisa. (Note: 100 Baisa equals approx 16.0 INR). Thankfully I had some free cash stashed in my pockets or else it would have been a futile visit.

The Arched Entrance of the Natural History Museum

About the emblem - Caracal Lynx

Display near the entrance;
A trunk of the fossil tree

The Tickets and the Information Booklet

From there we proceeded on our exploration with my daughter as my guide. But then she was just a 6-year-old kid and since the tour she took was made sometime last year, I took over and explained to her about some of the exhibits. The exhibits were typically housed behind glass panels with information panels, and they included a range of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, all preserved in actual life-like settings. Looking at the exhibits made me realize what my daughter meant a year ago, when she told me about seeing nothing but 'stuffed animal toys' in the museum.

I asked her if the kids were then explained as to what they saw and her answer was negative. They were taken on a silent tour of the entire museum. So, as we moved from one display to another, I pointed at the explanations and information given in front of every exhibit she found interesting. She was glad to discover a quiz wheel and there followed a wide grin on her face, when on turning the wheel, her guess turned out to be the correct one. Another thing we noticed were the 'magic lights' (termed by my daughter) which were actually the motion sensitive lights that turned on as we moved ahead to study each exhibit.

The Quiz Wheel

The Museum was not a huge building, but rather a small space, that was packed with a lot of information under the same roof. We were happy that we were allowed to take photographs and video recordings too. Here, are a few pictures of some unique and interesting exhibits we found at the museum.

Arabian Tahr

The Arabian Oryx

The Sparrows

Types of Butterflies found in Oman

The Prickly Cockle

On seeing the 'Prickly Cockle,' my daughter was expecting to find a 'big pearl' in it. And then I diverted her attention to the display on Corals. Like her, I too was amazed to learn about corals. They were named cauliflower coral, lettuce coral, brain coral and vase coral; each named after the shape it took.

The Cauliflower Coral

After a complete round of the sections on Oman's geography, geology and local flora and fauna, we proceeded to the adjoining hall which was labeled as the Whale Hall. The entrance of the Whale hall is adorned with the bones of a baleen whale. On entering in, we were as astonished as the other visitors. On display was a huge skeleton of a sperm whale which was washed up on the coastline at Barka (in Oman) in the 1980s. The whale, when found, was 25 years old, 14.0 m long and its live weight could have been 35 tonnes. The hall had other smaller skeletons of dolphins and porpoises, with information and interesting explanations on each of these creatures, their breeding habits and search for food. The local guide escorting the foreign visitors pressed a button and the hall echoed with the call of dolphins and whales.

The entrance to the Whale Hall:
Arched with bones of a baleen whale

 Display outside the Whale Hall:
Part of a jaw from a baleen whale

Skeleton of the sperm whale:
Bone weight - 3.5 tonnes

Information Panel - The World of Whales

We had an amazing time at the Museum learning about the flora and fauna of Oman. Also, it had been a long time since I had actually visited a Museum and it was the first time with my daughter. On visiting the whale museum what amazed us most was the scale of the Skeleton. My daughter commented that she could actually play with her friends there inside that belly which looked like a big cage. And then I made the mistake of reminding her of Pinocchio's adventure when he was swallowed by a big whale, for at the end of the day, I had to narrate the story of Pinocchio with special highlights on the 'whale' portion. However, it was a weekend 'whale'-spent.

Sometimes visiting a quiet place, with your dear and near ones, is more interesting and perhaps more fun than partying with loud music or traveling on wheels for hours. This small trip on a holiday spent with my daughter will always one of the most memorable trips in my travelogues.