On display near Sohar's fishing harbour, the Sohar is a full-size replica of a traditional Arab dhow of the kind that once plied trade routes from the Arabian Peninsula to India, Southeast Asia, and China. The vessel was built in 1980 by British explorer Tim Severin using traditional methods — stitched planks, coconut fibre rope, no metal fastenings — and sailed successfully from Muscat to Guangzhou, China, demonstrating the feasibility of the ancient maritime trade routes described in the Sinbad tales.
The ship is displayed in an outdoor setting and can be examined at close range. It is a striking object — the size and construction of the vessel make the achievement of those voyages more comprehensible than any museum exhibit could. Sohar claims Sinbad the Sailor as a native son, and while this is unlikely to be literally true, the city was genuinely a major maritime trading centre in the early Islamic period. The nearby fort museum tells this story in more detail.