THE SHORES OF DHOFAR

Frankincense ports Dream beaches Timeless khawrs

The 560 km long Dhofari coastline offers a great variety of landscapes: cliffs, khawrs, lush or stony plains, creeks, small and large bays and sheer mountain drops. The sea can be gentle, fierce, rough or languid. The monsoon affects about 130 km of the coastline, mainly around Salalah, which of course explains the great contrasts. In the east, the ochre cliffs and the desert, in the centre the tropical gardens and in the west the mountain with its sheer drops and the magnificent road to Yemen.
Salalah and many of the small towns and villages of Dhofar are on the coast: from east to west, Shalim, Sadh, Marbat, Taqah, Salalah, Rakhyut and Dhalkut. Once, they were all frankincense trading ports but now they have become fishing harbours. The fish here is plentiful: sardines, sharkhah, safilah, rubiyan, lobsters, abalone...
It is difficult to visit the tip of the east Dhofari coast, as there is no road beyond Mirbat. Tracks lead to Sadh. After that it is necessary to leave the main Salalah to Muscat road and drive down towards the coast through the wadis and their ochre cliffs at the bottom of which you can sometimes discover a lovely little beach or oasis. The coastline of the wilayat ofShalim is wild and beautiful with two villages, Sharbithat and Shuwaymiyah.
Wadi Shuwaymiyah is carved with spectacular huge, white and cream limestone cliffs. Palm trees mingle with other trees and create an outstanding tropical landscape. The walk up the gorge is splendid. We can see gazelles, ibex, and many pools.
These drives can be wonderful but can only be done in a four wheel drive and it is essential to be accompanied by the locals as there is very little information to be found for tourists.
Any visit to the Dhofari coast must start in Salalah. A day is needed to visit the east coast and another one for the west, with the possibility on both sides to drive inland toward truly magnificent landscapes.

From Salalah to Mirbat We are seeped in the atmosphere of the tales of Sindbad the Sailor

Miles and miles of beaches go past, white, silver or gold depending on the time or the light. They are hemmed by coconut trees or dunes and interspersed with khawrs, those fresh and sea water lagoons that look like creeks. An amazing fauna lives in these khawrs: migrating birds, a unique fish that can live both in sea and fresh water feeding on the tall grasses that bend with the wind... Behind Salalah, the Djebel Al Qara mountain chain stands out deep purple, brown or green at monsoon time, although in that season it can often be hidden beneath the clouds or the mist.
On the beaches, the ocean plays with the crabs, who endlessly throw themselves in the water only to come out soon after to hide in the sand, building above them the incredible sand castles we find in thousands all over the beach. The beaches are still rather empty, although they are being equipped by the Dhofar Municipality.
They have built some elegant shelters in stone or palms and a few cafeterias for the weekend visitors. However when the fishing boats come in, it is a real rush of four wheel drive, pick up trucks who come to take the fish. At high tide, you can often see men throwing in their large fishing nets that they pull out a few minutes later filled with sardines. They lay them on the beach, where they jump and wriggle in a silver dance in the sunshine. The women load the fish in the barrels and in the car. The silhouette of these women in their green, yellow, red or black dress and scarf against the endless background of beach and sea is timeless. It seems to be a scene that has come out straight from some old tale, like the ones so beautifully told by Sindbad the Sailor. The catch here seems to be always miraculous! A large number of sardines are left to dry on the beaches to be used later to feed the herds of the Jabalis.

Taqa and Sumhuram exported Frankincense The Queen of Sheba had her palace there

While yonder hill wears like a tiar The ruined grandeur of your fort. Though centuries falter and decline Your proven strongholds shall remain Embodies memories of your line, Incarnate legends of your reign Sarojini Naidu

In the ports of Taqa and Mirbat, the dhows come back loaded with sharks, tuna fish, and lobsters...A display that many people come to watch.
Taqa, which is 30 km away from Salalah can be reached by the beach and by road. On leaving Salalah, you drive along the large farms, and the fields where sugar cane, fodder, wheat and vegetables (cucumber, beans, corn) grow. They are constantly watered and often lined with bougainvillaea.
Taqa is well known for its mellow stone quarries which are used in most buildings in Salalah and Muscat and also for its site. It is without any doubt a beautiful village, stretching along the sea, watched over by a fort standing at the top of a cliff. Just outside the village, a khawr has become the kingdom of pink flamingos and egrets who have adopted its tall grasses and meanders. The fresh water comes from a spring that has flowed sufficiently into a small wadi to let an oasis of palm trees grow around the khawr. There are many colourful boats on the beach! Some old ones are still made of planks held together by ropes made with coconut fibres, with not a single nail in sight. The new boats are made of fibre glass. Here the sea has the turquoise colour of the lagoons. While the teenagers are surfing, their mothers are gathering the clay at the foot of the mountain to shape into incense burners, those famous mejmars, or any other pottery. They also make wicker baskets and leather goods.
The name of Taqa, can in fact be found in many ancient and religious books and also in navigation treatise. It was from this port, Sumhuram, that the ships loaded with frankincense left for Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. To reach the Mediterranean, the ships took their cargo to Qana in Yemen where the long camel caravans carried it to Petra and Gaza. There, it was loaded onto other ships sailing for Egypt or Rome. At Luxor, in the Valley of the Kings, there is a drawing showing a ship of the pharaoh's fleet anchored at Sumhuram. They also say that the frankincense sent to King Salomon by the queen of Sheba was loaded at Sumhuram. She often used to come there and had even a palace built. Its foundations seem to have been discovered. The Greek geographers called Sumhuram, Moscha, a name that is found on many old maps.
In fact Sumhuram is only a short distance from Taqa on Khor Rori, a magnificent khawr, protected by a lagoon. This is the largest khawr in Dhofar (2 km long and covering an area of 54 hectares). It is a very wide and deep creek where the waters of Wadi Darbat flow and the ocean creeps in over the lagoon.
The ships could lay anchor there, sheltered from winds and storms to load all the frankincense brought down in goatskins from the mountain by the caravans. What a sight these caravans between mountains and sea must have been! They were watched over by a fortress overlooking the port. Since 1952, archaeologists have discovered the walls of the fortress, a well and stone ponds indicative of a remarkable architecture. The discovery of engraved stones has made it possible to date the port. We know now that it was founded in the third millennium BC. But the citadel and the houses are probably more recent. An inscription on a stone mentions the reign of king Elaus in the first century BC. Although the site is fenced off, it can be visited. Amongst the stones, you can travel back in time while watching the khor, crossed by flights of pink flamingos, egrets, waders, gulls and sterns or a few camels, horses and grazing cows.
On the road to Mirbat, you can see the great mountain cliff where in the monsoon season the waters of Wadi Darbat become the most beautiful waterfall in Dhofar. A road leads to the cliff, to the valley where the water forms a lake and to the mountains that hide many caves and their animal paintings. We will talk further about this wonderful natural park where the Jabalis live in the section about the Jebel. But let us just point out that from that road there is a magnificent view of Khor Rori allowing you to grasp the layout of the port.

Mirbat, the ancient capital of the Minjawis, has some of the most beautiful houses in Dhofar

Until Mirbat (64 km from Salalah) the road is a desert road. But just as you reach the last stretch, the landscape changes. The mountain of Jebel Al Samhan seems to be drawn to the sea reaching it in wide bays. In one of them, there is a beautiful white mosque with its two onion shaped domes, built next to the Bin Ali Mausoleum (6th century AH, 13th Century AD) and a grave yard where the graves lie in the sand, with beautiful inscriptions sometimes engraved on gold plaques. There, away from everything, in this magnificently dramatic setting rest the old families of Mirbat.
The arrival at Mirbat is a delight. You are welcomed by its fort, a typical example of Omani architecture, that has been beautifully restored with its two canons facing the sea. The Minjawis, a community of Persian merchants, had turned Mirbat in the 10th century into a very important trading port for frankincense but also for Arab horses destined for the Indian market. The name of the city itself means the horse market. Mirbat has remained faithful to its trading tradition. Its wonderful houses show its wealth, although some of them are now falling into ruins. Luckily, in recent years, the descendants of these trading families have begun to show an interest in their heritage and have started to restore them. They really look wonderful! On two floors, surrounded by walls with beautifully carved arched windows with wood shutters made of two or four panels. The teak doors with their huge wooden lock look splendid again. The facades are again covered in beaten stucco which reinforces the fortress look of the houses with their terraced roofs surrounded by a railing with gables at the four corners.
One must take the time to visit and wander along the streets of Mirbat to discover its charms, its true beauty, the smallest details of these carved doors or windows. From those windows the view is as beautiful as a painting.
You can come out to the harbour where the dhows are lined up, their wood weathered by storms. The newest ones are made of fibre glass. Mirbat has now become an important fishing port for the abalone, the sufailah and for the export of dry fish. The sleepy ochre village, lying between Jebel Samhan and the sea, stands out against the incredible turquoise of the waters of the port.
Mirbat has other activities apart from fishing: boat building, the manufacture of nets, clay incense burners and a selection of wood and stone implements used in building.
Beyond Mirbat, the road is not tarmacked. A track goes to Sadh, following the lovely bays. So far they have remained unexploit-ed, but very soon a magnificent new resort commissioned by Dhofar Tourism Development will open. The bays offer many beautiful beaches with very good snorkelling over rocky outcrops, some encrusted with corals. The Mirbat Reef is between 2 and 7 metre deep in the caves and 18 to 24 metres offshore.
Sadh like Hasek has long been known by sailors for the natural shelter its harbour offered during storms. They could also load frankincense there. Sadh was guarded by a fort. At Hasek, on the slopes of the jebel, lies the prophet Saleh bin Hud. There, the mountains gets closer and closer, with its wadis, springs (Ain Laja) and caves. But Sadh's greatest resource remains the abalone.
The Kuria Muria Islands are close by (Hallaniya, Jibliya, Suda, Haskiya and Gharzaut) which were offered to Queen Victoria in 1854. For several years, England harvested the guano there. Oman did not get the islands back until 1967.
Only Hallaniya which is a huge table of limestone and igneous rock rising to about 400 metres, was and is still inhabited (about 80 people), but like in the other islands its sea bird population is much more important. There are also some sea turtles.

From Salalah to Mughsayl Breathtaking landscapes

On the other side of Salalah, the landscape changes. A large bay stretches from the capital to Raysut, passing by a bird sanctuary, the Hilton Hotel and ending at Port Salalah with its new container terminal where the giant containers that sail the world will come more and more often trying to gain a few hours or a few days on their rotation. These timeless landscapes next to the latest ships, give a true image of Oman, a country with an ancient civilisation, but looking to the future. Another shining example of the new Omani economy is the Raysut Industrial Estates with its huge factories (cement, flour-mill), and its brand new companies ready to play a part in the new export boom brought on by the new port (fisheries, food, medical equipment, paper mills...).
A marine study laboratory has opened near the port and is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on different programmes to protect the environment and the ecosystem. They also study various fishery development projects, especially aquaculture. Oman which is already quite rich in fish, lobsters, abalones, oysters, mussels has not yet fully exploited its shell fish resources. Sea weeds represent also a considerable income.
Just behind the factories at Raysut, stand the cliffs cut by deep canyons with their strange pink and ochre blocks. They will undoubtedly attract the photographers. The frankincense tree grows in these canyons and in the beds of the wadis. At weekends, the Omani come gladly for a picnic in the shade of the trees.
When you arrive at Mughsayl (34 km from Salalah), you find a new type of landscape: high cliffs overlooking the sea, magnificent beaches, breathtaking landscapes with impressive blow holes especially at monsoon time. A few years ago, that beach would still have been deserted except for the gulls and cormorants. Today, housing compounds have been built and the beach equipped with shelters and restaurants. Tourism has put its stamp on it. However, the khawr of Mughsayl, beyond the road that has replaced the lagoon, has kept all of its magic, its colours and its secrets. Camels, pelicans, pink flamingos are watching over their kingdom. The ducks have taken the largest stretches of water to fool around in. People use khawrs to water and graze their herds. Even the salty leaves of the mangroves are eaten by camels. Right at the end of the beach, begins the most spectacular road in Oman. It has been cut into the mountain slopes and the incredible hair pin bends take us 1000 m up from sea level to the top of the cliffs edged by sheer drops that turn at monsoon time into wonderful waterfalls. The landscapes are really different from any other seen earlier, with yuccas hanging over the crags and mountain oaks in a multitude of shades of amber, indigo, grey, red, jasper, carnelian and aventurine which at sunset, when darkness begins to fall, take on the colours of lapis-lazuli. Tourists are often surprised to find Dutch or Danish cows in this surrounding, grazing peacefully, totally indifferent to the majesty of the landscape and the white farms with their red roofs.
This road goes as far as the border with Yemen, overlooking or crossing the wadis. It is a crucial element of trade relations between the two countries. For those not afraid of heavy mileage and who would like to discover as much as possible about Oman, it is possible to go down to the little fishing port of Rakhyut, nestled at the bottom of a woody gorge. Those who make the effort will discover a wonderful beach.
At Dhalkut, another fishing harbour, there is a 350 year old mosque. The wilayat of Dhalkut was once the meeting point of caravans taking the Dhofari frankincense to Yemen and those coming back loaded with sugar candy and spices from India. Before the road linking Mughsayl to the border with Yemen was built in 1989, these two villages could only be reached by sea.
The Dhalkut wilayat has a foot in the sea and the other in the mountain. Cave lovers can find some very beautiful ones, often covered in paintings (Shaisa'a, Mashloul and Asbir) exactly like in the Rakhyut wilayat. On the border, the landscape becomes desert again, an image of utter isolation.