We took a private full day-tour to Jebel Shams via Nizwa and Misfah. Taxi drivers in Muscat later old us that they would have done the tour for about half of the amount the formal tour company charged. While coastal Oman was involved in a lucrative sea trade with Zanzibar, India and China in medieval times, inland Nizwa (174km from Muscat) was the seat of the imams who ruled much of the interior. Nizwa is famous as the headquarters of Sinbad the Sailor, and the city is also blessed with an imposing 17C fort, recently restored.