Here’s the entrance to the ceremonial Sultan Qaboos Al-Alam Palace in Muscat. Built in 1972, the Al Alam Palace has a fairytale façade of towering gold and blue pillars wrapped in wrought iron and edged in green - is it my imagination or does it look like a plastic pack of golf tees? Sultan Qaboos has ruled Oman since he deposed his father in a 1970 palace coup. After taking power, Sultan Qaboos liberalized politics in Oman and modernized the country’s economy, expanding health care, education, trade, infrastructure, and communications. Qaboos also developed Oman’s oil industry, which has brought prosperity to what was formerly one of Arabia’s poorest countries.