These ruins were a fully functioning village, inhabited by the current residents of Tanuf village until the 1950s. Life was simpler back then with very little of today's luxuries we are used to, as was the case in pre-Renaissance Oman in the 1970's. However, the village was damaged during the Jabal-Akhdar Wars in the 1950s and subsequently abandoned. The only thing that remains are the ruins you see today.