Muttrah is the old commercial heart of the capital, a harbour district immediately west of Old Muscat that was trading before the Portuguese arrived. Its corniche curves around a sheltered bay lined with traditional architecture; behind it, the covered souk spreads through a warren of passages selling silver, spices, incense, textiles, and frankincense. Muttrah is more lived-in and less polished than the rest of Muscat — the fish market is real and smelly, the souk caters to local buyers as well as tourists, and the buildings along the corniche mix old Omani merchant houses with 1970s concrete.
The neighbourhood rewards an evening more than a midday visit. The corniche fills with Omani families walking after dark, the souk is cooler and more atmospheric in the evening, and the fish market does its main business very early in the morning (before 7am) when the night's catch is sorted and sold. From Muttrah corniche, dhows are sometimes still moored in the harbour on their way to Iran and East Africa; the maritime connections that made Muscat wealthy for centuries are still faintly visible here.