The Musandam Peninsula exclave belongs to Oman. Oman’s Musandam Governorate occupies most of the peninsula, even though the territory is separated from Oman’s main body by the United Arab Emirates.
Musandam projects into the Strait of Hormuz, the strategically vital waterway linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Its position gives Oman a share of the strait’s coastline alongside Iran. The governorate’s capital and main town is Khasab, located near the peninsula’s northern tip.
The peninsula is famous for steep, folded mountains and narrow sea inlets often called khors. Jebel Harim, the area’s highest mountain, rises to about 2,087 metres. The landscape is sometimes compared with fjords, although its deeply indented coast was formed by geological uplift and flooding rather than glacial erosion.
The UAE governs parts of the wider Musandam Peninsula, including territory associated with Ras Al Khaimah and Dibba. That shared control causes a frequent mix-up: the peninsula is politically divided, but the Musandam exclave and governorate are Omani.