A trip to Anti-gravity spot at Salalah, Oman

 

In the desert, Salalah is a beautiful place with plentiful greenery. There are many tourist spots at Salalah and one of them is Anti-Gravity Point. In my childhood I came to know about the Anti-Gravity Hill in Salalah, Sultanate of Oman. I was planning for a Salalah trip, especially to visit that Anti-gravity spot since I relocated to Oman in 2007. But we were not getting enough time within our busy academic schedule at Caledonian College of Engineering at Muscat. Our annual vacation generally starts in the month of July and August and before that we have a tight schedule to complete the academic semester. In the year 2017, we got a bonus one week’s break from the academic activities just before our annual vacation as the examination was postponed by one week. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to visit our long-awaited destination, Salalah. We had an immense desire to see that Anti-gravity spot, I was very much enthusiastic to visit the Anti-gravity area. In the world hundreds of anti-gravity hills are there. But Salalah has easy access to me.

So, we started our journey from Muscat to Salalah by road. We, along with our close mates, Dr. Venkatesan, Dr. Kartikeyan and professor Menon started our journey in the 1st week of July 2017. We planned to complete the distance of 1300 Km within 9-10 hours and Dr. Kartikeyan was excellent with steering at his hands. We could complete the distance within nine hours. We planned our journey in such a way that we should not be within the desert during day time, because during day time when temperature is more than 55 degrees centigrade the road surface is extremely hot and driving with a velocity of more than 150-160 is not safe. From Muscat, we reached Ibri within two hours which is around 250 Kms. So, we needed to accelerate our journey. From Ibri town, we took right from the main roundabout where we could see a signboard directing “Salalah". That was the shortest route which bypasses Nizwa and Adam towns and we could save a few hundred Kms drive. We followed the signs at every round-abouts to Salalah. We reached a T-Junction on Route-31 which is approximately 90 kms after Adam, towards Haima. We had our breakfast in the morning and completed our lunch in the afternoon at around 4:00 pm.

This is the longest stretch without filling stations in the trip. We ensured to fuel the car at every available filling station. The road is very good except for a couple of damaged stretches which are under maintenance. Still, we could drive there at 150Km/hr or above. After Ibri the highway is single lane with no dividers. One must be very alert and careful especially while over-taking and night driving. If the driver feels tired, it is not advisable to drive without getting refreshed. We enjoyed the on-road journey with good music and spontaneous discussion with dr. Kartikeyan. Salalah is beyond the Dhofar mountain ranges which start at approx. 50 Kms from Thumrait. It’s always better to cross these ranges during daytime. Salalah check post at Dhofar Mountains welcomed us with foggy climate and drizzling. That was the moment of a lifetime. We got down and enjoyed every bit of it. It was very foggy in the mountains and we should be really careful while driving. Once we reached the other side of the mountains, the sight was totally different - greenery everywhere pleasing and relaxing to the eyes. When we reached Salalah, our odometer reading was 1290 Kms and it took approx. 09 Hrs, with short breaks at all fuel stations.

Salalah is a peaceful and scenic place, an apt place to relax and be away from the daily hustle-Academic job from Muscat. We did not require any guidance to travel through this distance, as we were familiar with the tourist spots and our main aim in Salalah was the Zero Gravity spot. Excluding this one there are many interesting places to be seen e.g., Jebel Ayub (Job’s tomb), Ittine, Ayn Garziz, Al Mughsail bay beach, Hashiq, Mirbat (anti-gravity spot), Khor Rouri, Wadi Derbat, Ayn Razat, Ayn Sahalnoot, Coconut/Banana plantations at Hafah and many others…We visited almost all the important places Hafsah as we were not in a hurry. We had a sufficient amount of time to cherish this life time experience. So, we enjoyed it a lot. Finally, after visiting all the places we went for our desired Anti-Gravity or Zero Gravity spot.

The exact place of antigravity hills is located at Mirbat and is little far from Salalah city. We put our car at the bottom of the hill where the slope is starting. It looks like around 30 degree of height. We put the car in neutral position and loosen the brakes and surprisingly it started moving. Dr. Kartikeyan was controlling the steering wheel and never touched the brakes or accelerator. Car constantly got acceleration and when it reached the top of the hill it was running at a speed of 35-40 km/hr. According to laws of physics, any object at a higher altitude will fall below following the principles of Gravitational attraction. In this case the example is completely reversed. The car with neutral off was moving up the hill instead of falling down the hill or falling back. In this case the bigger the mass of the car the bigger will be momentum. We could see the same effect of anti-gravity with some other objects. Some of the visitors were carrying big size mineral water bottles. They put the same on the road and it started rolling up the hills. It was indeed surprising.

Many people along with me enjoyed the ride. The place was crowded with hundreds of people and all were doing the same activity and enjoying the ride in a car without consuming fuel. Really, it is surprising to everyone. Some people believes that there is a magnetic attraction in that place, some believe it’s a zero-gravity place (gravitational effect on this place is zero). Some strongly believe it’s the play of devils.

I read about many articles related to anti-gravity hill scientific explanations and Optical illusion strikes my mind (though it is unbelievable to me).This bizarre experience has a lot of scientific explanations for this; the most common being that this is an anti-gravity hill. Regardless, this is a fun spot to visit for mystery-junkies and families alike.

The name "Anti-Gravity Point" is a misnomer as anti-gravity would mean that things would start floating. It can more correctly be called a gravity hill. Wikipedia defines a gravity hill as ‘a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces an optical illusion, making a slight downhill slope appear to be an uphill slope. Thus, a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill against gravity.’ The slope of gravity hills is an optical illusion, although sites are often accompanied by claims that magnetic or supernatural forces are at work. The most important factor contributing to the illusion is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon. Without a horizon, it becomes difficult to judge the slope of a surface, as a reliable reference is missing. Objects one would normally assume to be more or less perpendicular to the ground may actually be leaning, offsetting the visual reference.

The landscape tricks the eye into thinking the road is flat when in fact it is not. To prove any discrepancies in the slope, try pouring water on the ground and it will flow in the “uphill” direction, though it is actually downwards. Likewise, we can use any app on your phone to calculate the accurate measurements of elevations, which would show that instead of ascending the hill, we are actually descending. However, scientific explanation or not, this is an enjoyable experience.

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