Oman’s National Museum attracts 6,600 visitors in first month

Muscat: Oman’s National Museum welcomed over 6,600 visitors in its first month of opening, said Jamal Al Musawi, acting director-general of the museum.

The museum boasts an ambitious international acquisition programme for artefacts, either by purchasing them or borrowing them from other museums.

A stone flint believed to be two million years’ old — the oldest man-made object found in Oman — and the first throne of Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed when he took the reins in 1970 are among the main attractions at the museum which has over 6,000 artefacts.

It also houses the manuscripts of Francois Edmond Paris, a French admiral who visited Oman in the 18th century and documented the Omani ship building industry.

The National Museum is the first museum in the country to be established based on the International Council of Museum Standards.

It is the only museum in the Middle East to incorporate Arabic Braille script for vision-impaired visitors.