Women's dress is far more colourful than the simple black cloaks common in much of the rest of the Gulf region. Bright printed dresses are wrapped with even more colourful shawls and veils. Oman has devoted a great deal of effort to preserving its traditional arts, dance and music, though you're more likely to see traditional dancing staged in a museum than spontaneously breaking out in a village street. Oman is particularly known for its curved, silver-sheathed khanjar knives and silver jewellery. The typical menu is little more than whatever curry the cook decided to make that day, but it is usually pretty good, especially in the myriad small restaurants of Muscat and Salalah.
Alcohol is only available in larger hotels and expensive restaurants.
In that era an empire known as Magan developed along the Batinah, Oman's northern coast, exploiting the rich veins of copper found in the hills around Sohar. The region's economy declined over the centuries and sometime around 563 BC northern Oman was incorporated into the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Southern Oman's Dhofar region flourished due to the presence of frankincense-producing trees. In the mid-8th century AD the tribes of northern Oman swept into the rest of Arabia, briefly conquering Medina, where they were subsequently overthrown by the Abbasids. Though defeated, Oman managed to remain relatively free of Abbasid control.