The Sultanate of Oman (ʿUmān in Arabic) occupies the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The sultanate has been independent since the mid 18th century but for most of the 20th century it was under a British military protectorate. For many years the sultan barred most westerners and avoided modern developments, including lighthouses and port improvements. In 1970 the sultan was overthrown by one of his sons and since then the country has caught up rapidly with the rest of the Arab world. Tourism is encouraged and the country now attracts many visitors from the West and from Asia. In addition to its lengthy coastline facing the Gulf of Oman to the north and the Arabian Sea to the south the sultanate includes the Musandam peninsula, which is strategically located on the south side of the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Arabian/Persian Gulf. Musandam is separated from the rest of Oman by the emirate of Fujairah, one of the seven member states of the United Arab Emirates. The Arabic word for a lighthouse is mnarh or manara (منارة). Ra's is the word for a cape or headland, and jazīrat is an island. Aids to navigation in Oman are maintained by the Arabian Maritime and Navigational Aids Service (AMNAS), a private company based in Muscat (Masqaṭ), under a contract from the Omani government. In recent years AMNAS has been carrying out a major program of refurbishing existing lighthouses and building new ones. In April 2011 AMNAS announced that it would build three new lighthouses by the end of 2012: "one on the southern tip of Masirah, one in Ra's al Madrakah, which is further south of Duqm, and the third at the eastern end of Qibliyah, also known as the Halaniyat Islands, off the Dhofar coast." These new lights were all listed by the Admiralty in May 2015. Special thanks to Ian Atkinson for information on the history of Omani lights. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Muscat Light AMNAS photo |
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
Adjoining pages: North: Southeastern Iran | Southwest: Yemen | West: United Arab Emirates
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Posted February 16, 2006. Checked and revised October 16, 2023. Lighthouses: 16. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.