Properly the Sharqiyah Sands, and still widely called Wahiba after the tribe whose territory it is. The dune field runs roughly 180 kilometres north to south and around 80 across, with dunes reaching something like 100 metres in the higher parts. The sand shifts from pale gold to a deep rust depending on where you are and how the light falls.
Most visitors drive down for a night at one of the desert camps near Bidiyah, where the road ends and the sand begins. Tyres come down, a guide takes over, and you spend the afternoon on the dunes and the evening under a sky with effectively no light pollution in it.
Practicalities
You need a proper four-wheel drive and, unless you know the terrain, a guide — camps will normally meet you at the edge and lead you in. Go between October and March; summer daytime temperatures make it genuinely unpleasant and, in the wrong circumstances, dangerous.
Why it appears on a property site
Because it is two to three hours from the capital, and that shapes how people use a home in Muscat. A weekend place in the interior is a normal thing to own here, and buyers regularly ask how far the desert, the mountains and the coast are before they ask about the kitchen.
