We went in search of a 19th-century fort and tower, guided by the vague directions and promise in our guidebook. When we thought we had reached Umm Salal Mohammed, we drove around the streets searching vainly for any sign of a tower, but all the buildings looked new. We finally decided to stop and ask directions.
We found a bakery and had a delightful deli lunch, and then got directions: to Umm Salal Mohammed... we hadn't gone far enough. We backtracked to the highway and followed the signs, this time all the way into town, where we did indeed find some old, crumbling buildings, including a tower.
The base of the tower had signs of a family living in it. We asked a passer-by if he knew where the Barzan Tower was, in English and Arabic, but he did not.
We drove the rest of the way through the town until we were sure it was over, but no sign of a fort, so we doubled back on the highway. Finally we saw what appeared to be a couple of towers back in the direction we had just passed. We went and checked it out, and glory be, it appeared to be a fort, or the carefully re-constructed remains of a fort, at any rate.
We climbed up every stairwell and peeked through every door.
At sunset, we headed back, realizing that since there was no other sign of a tower anywhere around, the first one must have been the one we were looking for. Not much of a tourist attraction, since the local didn't even know that he was standing right in front of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment