With a population of more than half a million people, it is by far the biggest city in sparsely populated Oman and the main benefactor of the country’s 40-year-long oil boom that is still going strong.

On the downside, Muscat bore the full force of a category five tropical storm, Cyclone Gonu, the strongest such weather system ever recorded on the Arabian Peninsula – which ripped through the city on 6 June 2007. The storm came at a phase of rapid development for the city and is only likely to slow things down temporarily.

As the country continues with its ambitious plans to diversify its economy in the coming years with one of the prime areas for growth tipped to be tourism, Muscat can expect to build ever more four- and five-star hotels along with other attractions to lure the tourists.

In its favour so far has been the lack of bloodshed, a major problem elsewhere in the region, and the government’s realisation that it must cater to Western tourists as well as Arabs. The result is a warm and welcoming Arabic capital that tolerates Western ‘decadence’ while delivering a hefty and intoxicating dose of the old Middle East.