The residential area is to the northwest of Wādī Ḥilm (Arabic: وادي حلم), and the ruins of the ancient city are located to the southeast.

[2] Zheng He visited the city in the 15th century, and his crew called it 加剌哈 (Taihu Wu: ka-la-ha; Hokkien: ka-lat-ha; Cantonese: gaa-laat-haa).

[3] Qalhat served as an important stop in the wider Indian Ocean trade network, and was also the second city of the Kingdom of Ormus.

By 1507 when it was captured by Afonso de Albuquerque on behalf of the Portuguese Empire, the city was already in decline as trade shifted to Muscat.

[1] Recently, a research conducted by geoarchaeologists of the University of Bonn conclude that earthquake activity along the most prominent structural element, the Qalhat Fault, is a plausible reason for the decline of the medieval city.