I visited the exhibition today. The exhibition evoked in me memories of my two visits of friend in Oman at the end of the 1980s. Oman has since done a lot to preserve its maritime heritage. Then Oman cautiously opened up to commercial tourism and gave first visa to organised tours (before then one needed an invitation from �family� living in the country. Oman certainly was aware at all times of its maritime history. So dhows were still built in the traditional way at Sur and Tim Severin�s proto-dhow (The Sindbad Voyage) was propped-up in the middle of a roundabout in the South of Muscat (if I remember correctly). Now there is a place where replicas of traditional boats and ships as well as their models are buitl (?http://www.maritime.om). A maritime museum is also in the making.
The exhibitions was smaller than expected (only the small exhibition space on the ground-floor, not the large space in the basement), but gives a good overview of the shipbuilding traditions in Oman. Some good models produced by the said yard are on show. Unfortunately the models commissioned by Admiral P�ris in the 1870s-1880s, based on his own drawings, were not part of the exhibition. A model of a beden safar from that collection stood in the museum workshop (which can be viewed through a window from the galleries).
Somewhat enigmatic is the replica of a fishing beden. According to the exhibition Web-site the boat was shipped to Paris and should have been on show in a fountain outside the museum. Also a video in the exhibition mentioned the beden. But it was nowhere to seen. A telephone call to the museum did not resolve this enigma, the lady could not say what happened to the boat ...
A book accompanying the exhibition was produced that shows most of the artefacts on show. I cannot say anything about the DVD that was also on sale, as the museum-bookshop (under a new lease for a few months now) has rather customer-unfriendly opening hours: they have a 45 minute lunch-break and I arrived five minutes too late. The DVD has to wait until my next visit then.
wefalck
