January 16, 2011 Ubar and Salalah

Up, breakfasted and out the door by 7:45am. The motel keeper had advised a different route to Ubar than we had planned, so we took his suggested route because the road would be "better". This was questionable as we began going in a south east direction along the dirt track instead of west. With the tracks giving out, we were fortunate to find a farmer we could ask directions to Shisr. In this desert area there was water underground that the people totday are able to utilize in some small farmed areas. It was strange to see camels fenced into an agricultural area.

The town of Shisr is possibly the site of Ubar, and its ancient nature was discovered in 1992 by the explorer/adventurer Sir Ranulph Fienes. Historical references to a city in the sands of great wealth, wickedness and idolatry begin in 200 AD and note its location as at the crossroads of the lucrative frankincense trade at the edge of the Empty Quarter. Many had searched for Ubar including Bertram Thomas, H St J B Philby, Wilfred Thesiger, and Ranulph Fiennes. Fiennes togethe with Nicholas Clapp used NASA satellite images to spot the ancient tracks merging at Shisr, with buried ruins under the sand. The archeologist on the expedition was an American from South West Missouri State University, Dr. Juris Zarins. Several accounts have been written on the discovery of Ubar and Rollins published a novel called "Sands" that features Ubar.

The sink hole is below and behind Leslie

The site had obviously eroded over the past 20 years and there had been no attempt at reconstruction. In fact there were workmen taking down the modern eyesores of newly built concrete buildings and water tanks. The small museum noted in the guide book had been closed for several years. There were sign boards with photographs and drawing layouts of the site for you to mentally reconstruct what it had looked like. Overall only someone with a real curiosity about Oman's frankenscense routes should make any special trip to the site. One wonders if this UNESCO site has lost its standing or is on the endangered list like the Oryx sanctuary we will visit later.

It took about 2 hours to drive from Shisr to Salalah on roads that were under maintenance or construction the whole route. We arrived at the Crown Plaza Salalah, where we used our Priviledge card to secure a room upgrade to sea view and our 2 nights for the price of 1 for a cheap deal, about $130 per night with breakfast.

Al Balid (Old Salalah)

We then went to the Al Balid Archaeological park, the site of ancient Salalah known as Zufar. The extant ruins are from the 10th to 15th century, when the city was active as a  rich port for exporting frankincense and Arab horses, although some archeological finds date the site to much earlier than that.

Beautiful columns at Al Balid