The Musandam Peninsula is a 695-square-mile enclave that enables Oman to control the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Iran and through which passes about 20 percent of the world’s annual production of petroleum. Cut off from the rest of Oman by approximately 75 miles of the UAE, the Musandam increasingly attracts foreign visitors, who come to see the dramatic and thrillingly inhospitable coastal scenery, scuba dive and observe the large number of dolphins and whales that frequent its pristine waters. (No fewer than 11 dolphin species can be encountered. Sperm whales and humpback whales are also sighted.)