THE GARDEN OF ARABIA
Between the desert and the sea, Salalah is like a green world unto itself.
Between the desert and the sea, Salalah is like a green world unto itself.
Trudging through the sweltering Omani desert baking in the 120-degree heat, the going is nearly impossible. Walls of searing sand dunes 40 to 50 feet high loom over scorching, bone-dry plains that seem to go on forever. This arid zone is called The Empty Quarter because almost nothing can live here. Suddenly, south on the plain, a vision rises up from the desert floor behind shimmering waves of heat — an impossible sight of greenshrouded mountains.
Nestled inside, silver ribbons of waterfalls cascade. Dense woods, green pastures and plants and trees bearing tropical fruits abound. Packs of camels roam vegetation-lined roads and hundreds of species of birds drink and bathe in ponds and creeks. White sandy beaches dotted with coconut palms stretch where the limestone cliffs meet the Arabian Sea. In this oasis nestles Salalah, the garden city of the desert, where the searing heat gives way to temperatures hovering around 80 degrees.
Bathed by the drizzle of the khareef — the monsoon that swoops out of India from June through September — Salalah is a paradise out of the Arabian nights. It is the fabled land of frankincense, the tree resin from which perfumes and incense are made. The fragrant sap was as valuable as gold in ancient times. This is also the land of the legendary Queen of Sheba, who built one of her palaces near this city. Today’s Salalah is a major port on the Arabian Sea. But it’s also a lush paradise of white beaches, of waterfalls pouring into emerald pools, of roads roamed by packs of camels and of plantations ripe with bananas, mangos, papayas and limes.
It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage site, the origin of the Frankincense Road.
A HEADY HISTORY
Frankincense comes from the sap of the Boswellia tree, and southern Oman is one of the few places on earth where it grows. Today, groves of more than 2,000 aromatic trees can be seen in the Frankincense Park above Salalah or growing wild in the forests of the Dhofar Mountains. The tree resin was burned as incense for religious ceremonies in Mediterranean countries like Israel, Greece, Rome and Carthage, and aromatic perfumes were created from its oil. The substance was also prized as a remedy for high blood pressure, nausea, fever, infertility and cancer, and the incense developed a reputation as a powerful insect repellent.
The original hub of the Frankincense Road, 5,000 years ago, was the Lost
City of Ubar, the ruins of which are believed to be north of Salalah in the broiling Empty Quarter desert. Legend has it that Ubar, a magnificent city filled with buildings constructed with “lofty pillars,” suddenly vanished, swallowed by the sands due to some natural cataclysm. The fabled “Lawrence of Arabia,” T.E. Lawrence, described it as “the Atlantis of the Sands.”
With Ubar gone, the port city of Sumharam, located nearby modern Salalah, became center of the incense trade. Caravans of hundreds of camels carried the precious scent northwest through the desert to Egypt and up into Israel, to ports where ships carried it to southern European lands. Caravans traveling east brought frankincense to Persia, while boats carried it to India and China where it was traded for silk and other goods.
WHITE SANDY BEACHES DOTTED WITH COCONUT PALMS STRETCH WHERE THE LIMESTONE CLIFFS MEET THE ARABIAN SEA.
The trade made the fortress and port town of Sumharam rich. About 1000 B.C., the Queen of Sheba, who ruled in East Africa and nearby Yemen, decided to cash in.
MEMORABLE BEAUTY
The ambitious monarch built a summer palace nearby at Khor Rori, a large creek, where she stockpiled the valuable incense. (Today, the ruins form an archaeological attraction just east of Salalah, overlooking a nature refuge for many of the area’s nearly 200 species of birds.)
Sheba supposedly visited King Solomon of Israel because of his legendary wisdom, bringing him a valuable stock of frankincense among other gifts. But historians say she was also a brainy beauty, who mixed business with pleasure. She wisely secured a treaty from Solomon to protect her frankincense caravans from bandits as they passed through his kingdom on the way to Mediterranean ports.
During negotiations, Sheba is rumored to have had a brief, passionate romance with Solomon. He reputedly was describing Sheba as the beloved in his famed romantic poem The Song of Songs.
Salalah continued the lucrative frankincense trade through the 1200s.
Now it’s a major port and resort city with wondrous natural and archaeological sights.
SALALAH’S SIGHTS
One tasty place not to miss is the open-air fruit market lined with stalls covered by thatched roofs and brimming with a rainbow of produce grown nearby, including bananas, limes, mangos, coconuts, papayas, guava and custard apples. These occasionally end up in delectable restaurant dishes along with lobster and other local seafood. The local cuisine also includes vegetable curries influenced by nearby India.
Visitors can also enjoy the mild heat on the sandy beaches. Some 30 miles
west of Salalah is a gorgeous white stretch where cliffs meet the sea at Mughsail Bay, perfect for sunning, swimming and even bird-watching. At high tide, the waves blast into limestone caves and shoot out blow holes 100 feet into the air.
Or visit the spectacular Wadi Darbat, a nature park set in a river valley with dense woods. Camels feed in the pastures and bathe in the water alongside graceful white storks. This refuge also features thundering waterfalls, one plunging 300 feet. There are caves to explore containing drawings from shepherds who used them for shelter. The park is less than 20 miles east of Salalah and near the Khor Rori creek, home to birds like greater flamingos, teals, spoonbills, purple herons and ospreys.
The Tomb of Job, the prophet revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is also close by. The book of Job tells of a wealthy family man whose faith is tested by God. Job loses his wealth, family and health, but still refuses to blame the Lord. After much suffering, his wealth, health and family are restored and he’s given long life, allowing him to live to see generations of his offspring prosper. His reputed burial place, in a compound enclosed within a circular wall on the hill of Jabal Al Qar, is one of the world’s oldest pilgrimage sites.
The more adventurous can take a safari seeking the Lost City of Ubar, said to have been buried ages ago in the desert with all its riches.
About 100 miles north of Salalah, amidst the searing sand dunes of The Empty Quarter, is Shisr. In the early 1990s, Nicholas Clapp, an amateur archaeologist who’s been compared to Indiana Jones, claimed he unearthed a wall and towers of a fortress here which he believed was part of Ubar. The ruins dated back thousands of years and the site was on a route frankincense caravans would have traveled on their way north to Mediterranean ports.
Some critics say the ruins aren’t old enough to be Ubar, while others claim the Lost City is merely a myth. But even if you don’t find Ubar, there’s plenty to explore, discover, taste and enjoy in Salalah — the garden spot of Arabia.