Le Pont de Babel-Sérail

Los Angeles Times & New York Times

voir aussi: UNESCO

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À la recherche des cités perdues

Ubar, l’Atlantis des Sables selon T.E. Lawrence

Dans l’antiquité les parfums (l’encens principalement) venaient d’Arabie et d’abord du royaume de la reine de Saba autour de la cité disparue d’Ubar dont on a cru longtemps qu’il s’agissait d’une pure légende*…

LA FACE CACHÉE DE LA LÉGENDE

Or chacun sait que derrière les légendes comme derrière les mythes se cachent des noyaux de vérité qu’il faut savoir découvrir. Si René Girard montre que derrière les mythes du monde entier se cachent les meurtres fondateurs des cultures, aussi bien en Scandinavie, à Rome qu’en Inde ou en Amérique précolombienne, archéologues, historiens ou curieux réussissent souvent à deviner ce qui se cache dans d’anciens contes.
José Garanger a ainsi retrouvé et fouillé en 1967 la tombe spectaculaire du prince Roy Mata (XIIIè siècle) d’après un récit populaire des Nouvelles Hébrides (Vanuatu).

Mais sous les paysages que les millénaires ont modelés : alluvions, marées, coulées de boue, laves, nuées ardentes, ou simplement colluvions de pentes, dépôts répétés de feuilles, naissance de prairies et de forêts se cachent pareillement des vestiges de nos prédécesseurs. Les archéologues sont entrainés à ‘lire’ les paysages selon ce qu’ils peuvent révéler : collines de tessons ou de coquillages, structurations du sol soulignées par la végétation, faciès d’érosion variés (fleuves, vents, éboulis, marées) grâce aussi à des technologies qui affinent l’œil : photos aériennes à basse altitude, couverture photos géographiques (effet stéréoscopique), clichés satellites et utilisation de l’infra-rouge ou de l’oblicité des clichés.

À LA RECHERCHE D'UBAR

Les recherches d’Ubar dans les dunes du sultanat d’Oman entre 1930 et 1953 échouèrent. Les pistes caravanières qui devaient y conduire étaient régulièrement enfouies puis désenfouies par les vents de sable et donc quasi introuvables ! Ce sont des prises de vue de la navette spatiale en 1984 qui ont révélé enfin cette mystérieuse capitale au milieu d’un ses seuls peuplements de Boswellia sacra* dont la gomme extraite des entailles faites sur les troncs fournit l’encens.
En fait Ubar désignait la région et c’est en fouillant le fort de Shis’r (XVIè siècle) que l’on retrouva, dessous, les reste de l’Atlantis des sables.

‘Ubar’, dans le Nord du Dhofar (Oman), telle que la fouillèrent les archéologues possédait une muraille de pierres octogonale, des tours de briques, des fours à encens et de la poterie. Elle devait compter une centaine d’habitants. Elle fut détruite aux environs de 100 après J.-C. par effondrement du sous-sol en calcaire (doline) ou d’une citerne, puis recouvrement sableux.

Elle renait actuellement grâce à des campements de bédouins sédentarisés.

Sources:

Los Angeles Times, 12.09.1990

New York Times,21.04.1992

relayé par http://apachemag.com/ubar-latlantis-des-sables-selon-t-e-lawrence/,

*(NDR) Avant les fouilles archéologiques, la seule source dont on disposait à propos de cette cité perdue était le Coran.

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Ubar, Oman

Construite sur la route du commerce de l'encens vers 3000 avant Jésus-Christ, l'ancienne ville d'Ubar, située au sud-ouest de l'Oman, a été un endroit incroyablement riche avec ses édifices ornés de spectaculaires colonnes dorées. La ville, qui est tombée en ruines entre l'an 300 et l'an 500 après Jésus-Christ, n'a été redécouverte qu'en 1992 par une équipe utilisant la technologie satellite de la NASA.

Selon le Coran, Dieu aurait détruit Ubar pour punir ses habitants en raison de leur style de vie immoral. Les archéologues proposent toutefois une explication moins dramatique : les murs de pierre calcaire de la ville se sont effondrés.

Source: http://voyage.fr.be.msn.com

11.10.2011

Repris du New York Times du 04.04.1992

http://www.nytimes.com

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DANS LE DÉSERT LUNAIRE D'OMAN

Comme un parfum d'encens dans l'air

Par Jerry Bortolan, Courrier International, 26.07.2001

Fortins portugais, plages et mosquées admirables... A l'extrême nord-est de la péninsule Arabique, Oman vit des jours paisibles. Héritier d'un empire qui contrôlait l'océan Indien, le sultanat cultive l'encens, la myrrhe et une modernité sans excès.

La première impression que l'on ressent en arrivant à Mascate, c'est qu'il y manque quelque chose - une absence, un peu comme les trous dans le gruyère. On ne retrouve pas, par exemple, le chaos typique des grandes villes du Moyen-Orient. La circulation est ordonnée, et l'on remarque tout de suite la propreté extrême des rues. Celui qui jette un mégot de cigarette par terre écope d'une amende. Des hommes font méthodiquement briller les glissières de sécurité le long des routes. Dans le souk de Matrah, l'une des trois villes qui constituent Mascate, la capitale d'Oman, on ne risque pas de s'égarer comme sur les autres marchés orientaux, mais, pour retrouver une touche d'exotisme, il suffit de dévier de sa route et d'aller se perdre dans l'une des petites rues tortueuses qui s'entrecroisent derrière la corniche de Matrah. Là, le fil d'Ariane est vraiment nécessaire. Une odeur d'encens emplit l'air, agréable et étourdissante, héritage d'un commerce vieux de plusieurs milliers d'années qui fut la source de la puissance et de la richesse d'Oman au cours des siècles passés. Aujourd'hui encore, les femmes dans les maisons secouent leurs vêtements au-dessus des fumées d'encens pour les imprégner de leur parfum, ce qui se révèle une technique de séduction très efficace.

Mais Oman n'a pas toujours été ainsi. Jusqu'à il y a trente ans, c'était l'un des pays d'Arabie les plus arriérés, avec un taux d'analphabétisme et une mortalité infantile extrêmement élevés. A l'époque, il n'y avait que deux hôpitaux (avec dix médecins), trois écoles, et les villes étaient le plus souvent privées d'électricité. Quabus ibn Saïd, l'actuel sultan, après avoir déposé son père, Saïd ibn Taimour, un despote de type médiéval, a entrepris - en 1970 - la modernisation du pays. Aujourd'hui, grâce à l'investissement judicieux des pétrodollars (mais le pétrole ici est beaucoup moins abondant que dans les autres pays de la péninsule Arabique), Oman a pu se doter d'infrastructures efficaces, la majorité des enfants est scolarisée, le téléphone et l'électricité parviennent jusqu'aux villages les plus isolés.

Cependant, s'il est devenu plus facile d'explorer Oman, le pays demeure une terre d'aventure. Atteindre sans un 4 x 4 des lieux comme Wadi Bani Awf, l'un des oueds les plus beaux d'Oman, relève de l'impossible. Pour quitter Mascate et se lancer à la découverte du pays, nous avons dû parcourir pendant de nombreux kilomètres une autoroute pratiquement déserte, montant et descendant des flancs de collines dépourvues de toute végétation. Sur notre route, nous avons souvent rencontré des tours et des fortins qui témoignent de cent cinquante ans de domination portugaise, de 1500 à 1650. Entièrement restaurés ou en cours de restauration, tels le fort Mirani ou le fort Jalall, à Mascate, ils furent dressés stratégiquement sur un rocher pour défendre la baie contre les incursions ennemies provenant de la mer. Certains de ces fortins remontent même à l'époque préislamique, comme l'immense fort de Bahla, inscrit au patrimoine de l'humanité par l'UNESCO et reconstruit trois fois aux IXe, XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Aujourd'hui y est logée la garde spéciale du sultan, qui veille sur la sécurité du Palais, on ne sait jamais...

Après ce périple autour de Mascate, notre prochaine étape est Sur. Le parcours pour atteindre la ville est de ceux que l'on n'oublie pas : six heures en 4 x 4, sur une piste à peine tracée par d'autres risque-tout, au milieu des hauts plateaux du Hadjar. Souvent, pour franchir les obstacles et les pentes, il faut procéder pas à pas et, pour ne pas se perdre, vérifier sans cesse sa route sur la carte. En passant par des villages perdus au milieu de nulle part, nous réalisons que nous sommes en terre d'islam quand retentissent les appels à la prière du muezzin. Parvenus à destination, nous attendons l'aube. Dans le port-canal de la ville, les pêcheurs s'attellent au travail et installent le marché. Les tractations commencent. Ici les achats ne se font pas au kilo mais à la pièce : tant pour une sole, tant pour un requin. Les dhows des pêcheurs - des sortes de sambouks [grandes pirogues] - sont à quai. Les rudes visages des hommes de la mer rappellent ceux des pirates et des conquistadors, les vieux "métiers" des Omanais. C'étaient certainement de grands navigateurs, comme le légendaire Abdallah ben Al Passim, qui, sur un sambouk, alla jusqu'aux côtes de la Chine. Au XIXe siècle, l'empire d'Oman contrôlait une bonne partie de l'océan Indien, depuis Zanzibar jusqu'à certains ports de la côte indienne. Mais, sans le savoir-faire de leurs charpentiers de marine, les Omanais n'auraient pu faire concurrence aux puissantes flottes européennes. Cette tradition séculaire se perpétue encore aujourd'hui.

A Sur, sur les chantiers à ciel ouvert, on construit comme autrefois - sans concessions aux nouvelles technologies. Chaque élément est ici travaillé comme il y a cinq cents ans : aucune vis, seulement des chevilles en bois, des tenons, des mortaises, des cordes et des bois vieillis pour garantir l'imperméabilité. L'assemblage se fait à la force du bras, selon des techniques ancestrales. La seule innovation sur ces embarcations a consisté à introduire de petits moteurs pour manoeuvrer dans les passes étroites, mais, sur la mer, on navigue à la voile. Ce n'est pas le vent qui manque dans la région... A regarder les maisons, on ne dirait pas que la ville de Sur plonge ses racines dans l'Antiquité. Ici, tout a été reconstruit. Seul un fort ancien, récemment restitué à sa splendeur passée, est resté debout pour témoigner de son histoire.

Notre voyage se poursuit en direction de Nizwa, autrefois capitale des imams qui gouvernaient l'intérieur du pays. Après la traversée d'une plaine magnifique, entourée par la chaîne montagneuse du djebel Akhdar, nous arrivons à Nizwa. C'est aujourd'hui l'une des cités les plus riches et les plus développées du centre-nord. Le centre historique et les puissantes murailles (récemment restaurées) rappellent les fastes d'autrefois et abritent l'une des plus belles et des plus grandes mosquées d'Oman. Tanouf, le petit village en ruine à l'entrée du canyon, est dans un état de conservation nettement moins bon. Selon une vieille histoire, il aurait été bombardé par les avions anglais qui aidaient le sultan à mater des tribus rebelles réfugiées dans cette petite place forte naturelle.
Dans ce paysage désertique, seuls les bêlements des chèvres et les bruits des voix amplifiées par l'écho du canyon nous avertissent de la présence des habitants. Les maisons sont si bien camouflées qu'il est presque impossible de les distinguer.

Poursuivant notre route, nous rencontrons un vieil homme solitaire avec qui nous échangeons quelques mots. Il nous raconte que presque tous les canyons en contrebas sont habités. Dotés de bassins grâce à des barrages qui conservent les eaux de pluie, ils permettent d'alimenter longtemps les populations. Le petit village dressé sur les hauteurs qui regardent vers l'oasis d'Al Hambra n'a pas de problèmes d'irrigation. Les montagnes l'alimentent par un système curieux mais simple qui remonte à la domination perse, il y a deux mille cinq cents ans : les réserves en eau de la montagne sont captées dans de petits canaux appelés falaji qui, à la barbe des systèmes les plus avancés, conduisent l'eau jusqu'à la vallée après un chemin tortueux sur les parois escarpées.

Après avoir quitté un impressionnant poste de garde chargé de veiller sur cette précieuse eau, nous nous dirigeons vers le sud. C'est un long trajet vers Salalah, une petite ville aux confins du Yémen, où l'intégrisme religieux commence à être perceptible. Mais il n'y a ici rien de violent ni d'agressif, et le touriste occidental ne court aucun des dangers qui pourraient le guetter dans l'Etat voisin.

Par précaution - car nous n'avons aucun point de repère -, notre guide ordonne de temps à autre une halte pour vérifier notre position et réajuster son couvre-chef. Nous en profitons pour escalader les dunes et contempler Ubar, la mythique capitale de l'encens, dont les contours se dessinent à l'horizon. Au milieu de ce paysage lunaire, une carcasse de chameau blanchissant sous le soleil impitoyable nous rappelle à quel point l'endroit est hostile. Même ce vaisseau du désert n'a pu arriver au terme de sa course. Il ne reste que des ruines de la glorieuse Ubar. Oman demeure un grand producteur d'encens, et c'est dans une forêt squelettique que nous trouvons les arbres d'où il est extrait. Notre exploration dans ce pays surprenant trouve sa conclusion dans le désert de Salalah. Ici, on retrouve toutes les composantes de l'histoire du pays : sable, eau, traditions, pétrole.

L'effort de modernisation entrepris il y a trente ans par le sultan Quabous a porté ses fruits. Sans renier les traditions ni le profond sens religieux du peuple, Oman vit aujourd'hui sa Renaissance, que le génie d'un homme fit passer de l'âge du Coran à celui de l'ordinateur.

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Articles disponibles uniquement en anglais:

Los Angeles Times, 12.09.1990

par Sue Horton

Arabian Adventure : Modern Explorers Sift Desert Sands in Search of Lost City of Ubar

But now, an eclectic team of explorers led by Nicholas Clapp, a soft-spoken Los Angeles filmmaker, believes it is on the road to finding the lost city of Ubar, deep in the desert of Oman.

Their quest for the ancient metropolis, which was built around the trade in frankincense, has been attended by plenty of Arabian romance: fierce sandstorms, encounters with wild animals and now the complications of modern civilization--the crisis in the nearby Persian Gulf.

Clapp's hunt for Ubar began casually eight years ago with a bookseller's recommendation: "I went in looking for a book, and she handed me 'Arabia Felix' and said, 'You read this,' " he recalled.

In the book, Thomas, a British Army officer, onetime aide to the Sultan of Oman, protege of Lawrence and one of only two Westerners to traverse the dunes of the Empty Quarter, described his unsuccessful mission to discover the ruins of the "great city."

Clapp had been to Oman in 1980 and was looking for a project to take him back. After reading Thomas' 1932 account of the road to Ubar, Clapp had found his project: the search for Ubar.

While other explorers had sifted the sands of time in search of the smallest clues, this expedition would be a high-tech archeological effort guided by computer-enhanced images from space, run by a team of amateur and professional explorers and financed by the Oman government.

When Thomas gave up his search years ago, he carefully noted the coordinates of the road he believed led to the lost city before leaving the desert. "Some few days to the north . . .," said Thomas' guides as they labored under the desert sun to help the Western explorer map a road that someone might someday follow.

Clapp, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker for Armand Hammer Productions, decided he would be that someone. Clapp began to read everything he could find about Ubar. He found tales of the lost city's splendor in everything from the Koran to "A Thousand and One Nights."

Although separating fact from fantasy proved difficult in the diverse accounts, Clapp began to get a picture of the fabulously wealthy city that existed about the time the lucrative frankincense trade started. That city had thrived for at least 2,000 years before the birth of Christ.

Its prized incense, more valuable than gold during Ubar's heyday, came from trees found only in the hills of what is now the Dhofar region of Oman. An aromatic resin derived from tree sap, frankincense brought great wealth to those who controlled its harvest and distribution, including Ubar's residents. It was used in a wide range of rituals and ceremonies, including cremations and royal processions.

But the Koran notes that great wealth did not lead to great happiness for the people of Ubar. Because they lived sinful lives and refused to repent, the Islamic holy work says, Allah ultimately destroyed their "many columned city . . . whose like has never been built in the whole land."

"The whole key to the mystery and romance of ancient Arabia is rooted in the frankincense trade," Clapp said, noting that scholars have studied the trade "farther on up the route it was traded. But virtually nothing is known of the trade at its source."

Clapp and colleagues have now begun to change that. This summer, after years of planning, Clapp, along with Los Angeles lawyer George Hedges, Jet Propulsion Laboratory geologist Ronald Blom, archeologist Juris Zarins and famed British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, finally stood on the sands traversed by Thomas.

They began unearthing what they hope will be evidence of the so-called Ad civilization that spawned the lost city of Ubar, if not the city itself.

Their short expedition in July, staged in preparation for a major exploratory trip this winter, did not locate the city with certainty.

But it did uncover artifacts--about 900 pottery shards and flint pieces--that suggest they are on the right tract. The frankincense trade route, at the least, has been discovered.

Certain they have uncovered long-buried clues to the ancient people who built the trade, the men remain hopeful of finding Ubar.

One obstacle may be the troubles in the Persian Gulf. Oman borders Saudi Arabia, and the next expedition, Clapp said, will "of course await the settling of hostilities."

Clapp knew from the beginning that searching for the remnants of one small city in the vast and desolate Rub al Khali dunes would be a formidable task. And he had no intention of venturing into the desert until he had done as much preparation as possible. He began looking for ways that technology could help him.

Armed with only his historical references and with Thomas' notes about the lost road, Clapp approached Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"This guy called up and said, 'I'm trying to find a lost city,' " recalled Ronald Blom, a JPL geologist. "My first thought was that this was a crank call."

But as Blom listened to Clapp, he found himself engrossed in the project; before long, he and his boss, Charles Elachi, were part of the search.

Elachi headed JPL's Shuttle Imaging Radar program, part of an effort to generate and use images from a sophisticated radar system carried on the space shuttles. He and Blom believed the radar might help locate traces of civilization in the Rub al Khali because it can produce images of objects buried in the sands.

It did. In 1984, during the Challenger's next-to-last flight, the Shuttle Imaging Radar system gathered data as it passed over Oman. From that data, high-tech images were generated and later enhanced with images from French and American satellites.

At almost exactly the spot noted by Thomas, in a stretch of Arabian desert so deserted that it is known as the "Empty Quarter," the men found evidence of a 100-yard-wide road connected to dozens of other ancient roads in the region.

Images in hand, Clapp turned his attention to assembling an expedition team, a job that proved to be less than difficult. "Everyone I spoke to was very enthusiastic about this project," Clapp said.

JPL's Blom, already hooked into the Ubar quest, signed on for the expedition. Clapp also approached his friend, lawyer Hedges, who, as a student of classics and archeology, promised to bring another view to the project.

"Nick knows that I am not a quitter. When I start something I make it happen," Hedges said. "And I had a real romantic feeling about this project right from the beginning. It really appealed to my spirit of adventure. It was immediate, full-blooded enthusiasm on my part."

Realizing that they needed more technical guidance, the team approached Juris Zarins, an archeologist at Southwest Missouri State University, who had spent several years doing fieldwork in the Arabian desert.

To complete the team, they invited Sir Ranulph Fiennes, a dashing British adventurer and explorer who had fought with the Sultan of Oman's forces during a rebellion in the late 1960s.

But even with the team in place, the expedition faced imposing obstacles, most of them financial. Ultimately, the team found support from various sources, including $15,000 from the Oman International Bank, free transportation from Gulf Air and full tactical support and transportation within Oman from its government, an absolute monarchy that rules the Kansas-sized country of 1.3 million people.

In Oman, the team received red-carpet treatment. Within days of arrival, the expedition had a helicopter, a pilot and ground vehicles from the Omani military, and a cadre of armed escorts from the Royal Omani Police.

"We told the Omanis, 'There's a big hole in your history,' " Clapp said. " 'We know your ancestors controlled the most valuable commodity in the ancient world. But we don't know anything about the people who ran the trade prior to 100 BC.' The Omanis were very interested in learning with us."

Before they left the United States, Clapp and Zarins had compiled a list of 35 sites to investigate. Almost immediately they began to uncover what archeologist Zarins believes are artifacts from the incense civilization.

Some of what they found was from well-studied periods, including fragments of classical pottery. But Zarins was more excited about small bits of an indigenous, reddish-brown pottery discovered at several sites. "Some of the pottery was really different and represented an unexplored aspect of the region," Zarins said.

Beyond the thrill of discovery, the expedition brought the hurdles that have historically troubled the most intrepid explorers. Raging sandstorms cut short the group's work in the Empty Quarter, where they had most expected to find the city of Ubar. Giant "heat-seeking" ticks chased them around a cave that they had entered to escape the heat.

Tired of the ticks and concerned about the return of a leopard that also seemed to inhabit the cave, the men resumed their desert search, only to come upon a deadly Arabian viper. Not far from that, they came upon a scorpion.

But the trip also had its serendipitous moments. One day while driving between two sites, Zarins and Hedges stopped for a cold drink. Near the car, Zarins noticed something strange. "Archeologists are trained to look for things in the landscape that are out of place. I noticed some nearby stones that rose too high, so we went to investigate," Zarins said.

There the men found more of the indigenous pottery as well as evidence of structures that they believe tie the site to the incense trade.

"We went looking for clues to a lost city," Hedges said, "and we came back with what may well prove to be evidence of an entire civilization."

Copyright: Los Angeles Times, 2013

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New York Times, 21.04.1992

par John Noble Wilford

The Frankincense Route Emerges From the Desert

THE archeologists who recently announced the discovery of the legendary lost city of Ubar in the Arabian Peninsula have found the remains of another major emporium in the ancient frankincense trade: the ruins of an even larger city near the coast of the Indian Ocean.

The new discovery is considered a significant step in establishing the full scope of the frankincense traffic at its most prosperous time, at the height of the Roman Empire in the early centuries after Christ, and at one of its major sources, in the Qara Mountains of southern Oman. This seems to remove any remaining questions about how and where the prized commodity was shipped across the Arabian desert by a network of caravan routes to Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean and by ships across the sea to India.

The new find, at the base of the Qara Mountains, is at a site with the modern name of Ain Humran. The discoverers identified it as the ruins of the fortified trading center called Saffara Metropolis on the maps of Claudius Ptolemy, the Alexandrian geographer of the second century A.D.

With its discovery, archeologists now think they know three principal sites engaged in shipping frankincense: Saffara Metropolis, at the mountains where the aromatic resin is grown; Ubar, or Omanum Emporium on Ptolemaic maps, across the mountains on the edge of the Empty Quarter and so the nexus for the trans-desert trade, and finally, the ancient seaport of Moscha, discovered and excavated in the 1950's. Saffara Metropolis is only seven miles inland from the Moscha site, which is 25 miles east of the modern port of Salalah.

In announcing the find yesterday, Dr. Juris Zarins, chief archeologist of an American-British-Omani expedition, said preliminary excavations at Saffara Metropolis produced pottery and other artifacts indicating that it was occupied at the same time as Ubar, which was settled some 5,000 years ago and was a bustling caravan center as early as 2000 B.C.

"This opens up a whole new area that hasn't been looked at before in exploring frankincense trade," he said.

Dr. Zarins, a professor of anthropology at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, said the towers, interior walls and other aspects of architecture at the newly discovered site were virtually identical to those at Ubar. The central part of the city stood stark and unburied on the top of a hill. Its crumbling walls encompassed an area about 300 feet by 350 feet.

Dr. Barri Jones of the University of Manchester in England, examining ancient maps, made the connection between these ruins and Saffara Metropolis, which in Greek means the main city of Dhofar, another name for the southern region of Oman.

The excavations, which Dr. Zarins described in an interview by telephone from his campus office, also uncovered samples of the incense and statuettes from India, the principal overseas market for the trade.

Dr. Zarins is a member of the TransArabia Expedition, led by Nicholas Clapp, a Los Angeles film maker, and George R. Hedges, a Los Angeles lawyer with a background in archeology. Another organizer was Sir Ranulph Fiennes, a British explorer with wide experience in Oman.

After a decade of study and preparation, the expedition struck pay dirt last fall when, guided by detailed remote-sensing surveys by satellite and the space shuttle, its members followed ancient caravan tracks to a water well now known as Ash Shisar. The photographic and radar surveys had been analyzed by remote-sensing specialists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

There near the well, buried in the sand, were the mud-brick walls and towers of an ancient city. Comparing its location with Ptolemaic maps, the explorers concluded this was none other than the lost city of Ubar, famous in the Koran and other literature as a place of fabulous wealth and corruption. It supposedly came to a sudden collapse toward the end of the Roman period, sinking out of sight. T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, called Ubar "the Atlantis of Arabia."

Since Ubar's discovery was announced in February, Dr. Zarins continued digging at the site and said he was increasingly certain that Ubar's walls and towers were probably built more than 2,000 years ago, at the beginning of the city's greatest prosperity. He said the ruins of one more tower had been discovered, bringing the number of towers to nine. Sites for Caravans

The archeologist reported that Ubar appeared to have been a much more extensive city than once thought. Beyond the walls of its central city, measuring about 150 feet by 180 feet, were buried remains marking about 20 other occupation sites, some as far away as six miles. These were presumably camping areas for the caravans and others who came to enrich and enjoy themselves at Ubar.

Further digging led the archeologists to evidence that people had been living at the Ubar site for at least 5,000 years. Its peak occupation, though, was in the Roman period of the first, second and third centuries after Christ. The city's fortunes seemed to decline with those of the empire. Geologists on the expedition suggested that an earthquake could have caused the center of the city to collapse into the limestone caverns that underlay the region.

The discovery of the ruins at Ain Humran was made after a systematic ground reconnaissance, assisted by satellite photography.

Mr. Hedges said the expedition would be returning to Oman to resume excavations this fall. Mr. Clapp is producing a film on the explorations for the Public Broadcasting System's science program "Nova." A five-year plan has been developed for more intensive exploration at the newly discovered sites of the frankincense trade network and for expanding the search into neighboring Yemen.

Much of Ubar remains to be excavated. Dr. Zarins said he wanted to gather more evidence documenting his thesis that the people who live in the Qara Mountains today are descendants of the people known as Ad in ancient times. The discoveries at Ain Humran, he said, provide stronger evidence that the people of Ad were the ones who controlled the thriving incense trade.

Copyright New York Times 2013

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Muscat Daily (Oman's daily newspaper)

par Amit Chanda

03.03.2013

Tracing Oman's world heritage sites

Walking Through History – Oman’s World Heritage Site, a 183-page coffee table book, with a sizeable number of photographs and compact passages by Oman resident Tony Walsh, succinctly traces the history of Oman's important natural and architectural heritage sites, its archaeological treasures and the elaborate aflaj irrigation system.

Historic fort and mosque at Bahla

During the rule of the Abbasid Dynasty, which had Baghdad as its capital, the town of Bahla was the seat of Oman's governor. Another interesting revelation in the book is that Bahla was a centre for Islamic learning. Abu Mohammed al Selimi al Bahlawi, an Omani intellectual, established the Madrasa Ibn Baraka in the village of A’Darh in Bahla. As a result, many scholars from the Ibadhi sect of Islam, not only from Oman but as far away as North Africa, came to Bahla.

Bahla fort comes in for special praise from Walsh. He quotes S B Miles, a British army officer who visited the fort in 1885 and described it as “a large, substantial and handsome edifice.” Miles noted, “I think [it is] the loftiest structure I have seen in Oman and I was careful to photograph it.” The photographs taken by Miles were key reference during the fort’s restoration.

The fort shares its hill with the ancient great mosque of Bahla. An inscription on a column within the building is the earliest date found in this mosque of 528AH/1133AD. Coins belonging to the period of Imam Al Khalil bin Shadhan al Kharousi, one of Oman’s earliest Imams who died in 424AH/1033AD, have been unearthed from the mud flooring of the mosque.

Archaeological sites of Bat, Al Khutm and Al Ayn

Near the town of Ibri in northwestern Oman are the tombs and settlements of Bat and Al Ayn, which, according to UNESCO’s International Council on Monuments and Sites, are ‘the most complete and best-known sites of the third millennium BC’.

Walsh says that buildings associated with Bat were constructed during a period when commerce was developing. The trade route stretched from the mountains of northeast Oman, across the Sea of Oman to the Indus Valley, and north into Mesopotamia.

He says that Oman, while adjacent to three of the world’s most important ancient civilisations, was ‘terra incognita’ to the archaeological world until the early 1950s. He adds that despite its antiquity and links to other civilisations, no mention of Bat or any other individual Omani site of its period is made in ancient texts.

Over 20km to the east of Bat on the edge of Wadi al Ayn is the village of Al Ayn. Walsh says the wadi was formed by flooding from the western slopes of Jebel Shams, down past Amlah towards Ibri.

Land of frankincense

Frankincense, an aromatic resin obtained from trees, which grow in the great arc of the Dhofar Mountains around Salalah, was traded throughout the ancient world from Rome to China.

The sites associated with frankincense cultivation were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List on December 2, 2000.

Walsh says that ancient Egyptians believed drops of frankincense resin were tears from Horus, the god of the sky.

Wadi Dawkah

Wadi Dawkah was selected as the site to harvest frankincense resin in ancient times as it is an intact natural landscape and close to the main Salalah-Muscat highway.

Frankincense trees dominate the vegetation at the Wadi Dawkah site and are scattered over an area of approximately 5sq km.

About 1,200 trees are within the wadi, writes Walsh. Trees are supplied with water by drip-feed irrigation.

Khor Rori/Sumhuram – The hidden harbour

Khor Rori is considered the largest natural inlet on the entire Dhofar coastline and has at its heart in the ancient town of Sumhuram.

Quoting Dr Alessandra Avanzini, who has been excavating the town of Sumhuram since 1996, Walsh says that it’s the most important pre-Islamic settlement in the Dhofar region.

The lost city of Wubar

Shisr in Dhofar is often called the lost city of Wubar (also referred to as Iram and Ubar). The New York Times on February 5, 1992 wrote, ‘In the Q’uran, Iram and possibly Wubar is described as a ‘many columned city whose like has not been built in the entire land.’ Bordered by Wadi Ghadun and the desert of Rub al Khail, Shisr was a key water source in a region known for its aridity. The area provided access across the Rub al Khali to eastern Arabian markets as well as frankincense routes to the west.

The port of Al Baleed

The medieval town of Dhofar, now called Al Baleed, was a wealthy port.

The monsoon season in Salalah, which draws winds from the south-west Arabian Sea from May to September, enabled travellers like the Moroccan Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, to travel from Kilwa in East Africa to Al Baleed. The journey of over 3,300km could be accomplished in ten to 14 days.

Renewed interest in Al Baleed has resulted in extensive archaeological examination. The town was included in the inscription of the Land of Frankincense World Heritage Site on December 2, 2000

Aflaj Irrigation Systems

Northern Oman’s aflaj (singular, falaj) have played a key role in the development of society and agricultural economy. UNESCO listed five of Oman’s aflaj systems in its list of World Heritage Sites on July 11, 2006.

According to Walsh, there are nearly 4,100 (aflaj systems) in Oman, of which around 3,017 are still functioning.

Falaj al Jeela

In the eastern Hajar mountains is the village of Al Jeela which is over 1,200m above sea level. Water flows down from the mountains, percolates into the rocks and flows down towards Wadi Shab.

Falaj al Khatmeen

Falaj al Khatmeen, the falaj of Birkat al Mawz was constructed by Imam Sultan bin Saif bin Malik al Ya’rubi, a ruler of Oman who died in 1680. The entire water supply was intended for the ruler’s property. However, during the construction the main tunnel collapsed and seven workers died. Their families demanded that if work was to continue, a share of the water supply should be given to the local population. Today the waters of Falaj al Khatmeen are divided, with 60 per cent for use by the state and charitable endowments, and the remainder by private individuals.

Falaj al Malki

The peaks of Jebel Akhdar which soar above the town of Izki are the source of water for Wadi Halfyan, one of Oman’s great wadis. Flowing past Izki, the ancient river that created the wadi carried on through the central stony plain of Oman and entered the Arabian Sea at Mahawt.

Falaj Daris

Falaj Daris is Oman’s most renowned aflaj, located on the edge of Wadi al Abydh, in the wilayat of Nizwa. The main tributary for Wadi al Abydh is the great Wadi Tanuf, which cuts deep into the heart of Jebel Akhdar.

Falaj al Muyassar

Falaj al Muyassar in the wilayat of Rustaq is the only UNESCO site on the northern slopes of Oman’s mountains. The source water for this wadi is the impressive gorge of Wadi Bani Auf, some 10km away.

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