Salalah, Oman

Sunday April 13

Arrived in the port of Salalah early morning and could see a number of "Captain Phillip's" type container ships being loaded and unloaded - this looked to be a 24x7 operation in this port as it is massive, and some of the gantrys were taller than the top of our ship!

Once again we teamed up with Bruce and Margaret Anne to tour with, and after some haggling with the many taxi drivers waiting for people coming off the ship we piled into a taxi and headed inland. The first stop was about 30 kms away and we passed many "free range" camels along the way. Some even wandered across the main road and cars have to give way to them - very different road hazards here!

We arrived at a small oasis on the top of a hill, and after a short walk along a beautiful garden path we saw the building purportedly containing the tomb of Job (from the Old Testament). Before we entered there was a well type structure with a rock about a meter down that purportedly has the footprint of Job in it - you could see a rough outline of a foot and 5 toe imprints, but he must have taken about a size 30 sandal! The picture shows his tomb which is 4m x 1.5m, so he was a big boy.

Our driver Saed took us up to a nearby lookout where we got a fabulous overview of the dry, dusty and barren land around us and looking back toward Salalah, so you can see that we've been "roughing it" in this hot part of Arabia (at least while we're on land).

We then headed off to visit an archeological site called Sumhuram, which contains the ruins of an old frankincense port. (The Salalah region has always been an ideal place for growing frankincense trees, and the aromatic resin that's harvested from them has been a valuable commodity for thousands of years. There were a number of ports along the coast here where frankincense was traded, and now it's readily available in the souks, along with myrrh and other essential oils that are burned to release their fragrant aromas). It was neat being able to walk around an ancient site like this and see how the city was organized, and there was also an archeological gallery that contained lots of items that had been dug up in the ruins.

On the drive back to Salalah we passed the Sultan's summer palace and surrounding farms, all protected by high walls and armed lookout towers. You could always tell when you were near anything connected with the Sultan as the roads improved, they had lovely street lights, the nature strips were green with beautiful flower beds in them and there were warning signs telling you not to drive up the side roads! Salalah used to be the capital of Oman but it was moved to Muscat, and you can see how it has been left behind in terms of development over the past 30 years.

Our final stop was Al-Baleed Archeological Park, which contains the ruins of a 3,000 year old trading city once visited by Marco Polo (another big traveller), and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. This was a bit disappointing, unless you liked piles of rocks in the desert. However because it's such a big site we got a golf buggy (with driver) to take us around, as we were short of time and it was too hot for such a big walk.

We also wanted to have some time to check out the Frankincense Land Museum which was within the site, and this was an excellent choice. It gave a really good over view of the history, culture and heritage of the Omanis as sailors, traders, farmers and explorers, with lots of great nautical exhibits as well as how developed they were as a civilization from long ago.

It has been a great experience to visit this part of the world, and we've really enjoyed our time in Muscat and Salalah. Given Oman's location we now appreciate how important it is strategically, and what an important role it has played over many thousands of years of history.

 

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