Oman Day 3: The Natural Harbor at Khor Rori and Other Adventures

Yesterday we drove a two and a half hour distance Eastward to get to Khor Khofot. We went about as far as we could without entering Yemen. On this day we were going Westward. The most important thing we wanted to see was Khor Rori, an ancient city and harbor. We also saw a few other things on our way. Heading down the coast we stopped at a little town called Taqa. Nothing particularly special about the town other than its a beautiful ocean side city with many fruit plantations, trees, and a little fortress that we decided to visit. Here are some views of the city from the top of the fortress.

Me standing on top of the fortress. This actually isn't that old. Maybe only one hundred years.

A view inside the fortress. This is where the governor used to live with his family and guards.

This is actually only a picture of a picture because the women in this country and other parts of the Middle East usually don't like to be photographed. I liked this picture because of the mask the woman wore. This mask is traditional for Oman. The women in this country wear a variety of colors unlike Saudi, where the women usually just stick to black.

We spent most of our day here at Khor Rori aka Sumhuram. This place was awesome. It wasn't far from Salalah, maybe 40 minutes? and only 10 minutes or less West of Taqa.

If you look closely beyond the goats drinking in the picture you will see in the distance the old city walls of Khor Rori. This city used to be an important city for ocean trading. A river feeds the ocean from this location during the Khareef season. During that time huge water falls go spilling off of the cliffs north of the city. When it is the dry season the river stops but the water still reaches the city from the ocean.

Khor Rori was the perfect place for a city because of the cliff you see in the distance and the cliff I'm standing on when I took this picture. The cliffs kept the ocean waves from pounding the shore day in and day out. This was important because you could easily take a boat into and out from the city without having to fight the waves. If you read my post from the day before you will see this was important because Chris and I almost got stranded at Khor Khofot because we could hardly get our boat past the waves. We almost lost our boat in the process!

You probably can't see the ancient city Khor Rori/Sumhuram in the picture but its basically right behind me in the distance in the picture above. You might think "how could this be a good place to take ships in and out of when there is a sandbar blocking the way!?" Well it is actually the sandbar that was the eventual destruction of the city. This city prospered from 300BC to 500AD. About 500AD this sandbar started to form making it impossible for ships to enter and get to the city. That is why the city remains in ruins today. The inhabitants probably had to abandon it when the means of its income was destroyed. But before this time it would have been the perfect place to build ships and take them out into the sea. Its also a beautiful location!

Here I am standing on one of the cliffs. It makes me wish I had a brother so I could throw him off of it (inside joke for those of you in the know).

Walking along the sandbar. Many tourists are brought to this location to swim. Chris and I were here more to explore and hike although we did go swim in the ocean later.

We walked over to the opposite side of the cliff and rested for awhile.

A view of the sandbar from the other side. Keep in mind the mountains in the back would be completely green and beautiful during the Khareef season. Water would be spilling off the mountains like crazy.

Taking some time to read one of my favorite books again.

Here are some camels drinking from the waters near Khor Rori.

You can see two white flamingos in the distance. When they flew you could see the inside of their wings were actually pink. We saw many birds here. In the Khareef there are supposed to be even more of them.

Now for exploring the city. This part of the ancient city is a temple to the god they worshipped. The god's name, ironically, was Sin. When I came back and showed my students these pictures I told them about this and what the word "sin" means in English. When I told them I could see my most conservative student nodding in agreement like he was saying "what an appropriate name" I thought it was funny.

Here I am at the altar of Sin.

Its hard to see but there is writing on this stone. This was a part of the ancient gate of Sumhuram. It describes the construction of the city.

The old well of Khor Rori/Sumhuram. It used to be located in a very large building.

Standing in the ruins of the city. You can see the two cliffs and the sandbar in the distance. We spent a good amount of time in the city and then we were off. This was one of my favorite places in the Dhofar Region. Next we headed to a little town known as Mirbat - a town needed a little bit of repair and cleaning.

Mirbat is a little fishing city. Many of the buildings here are falling apart. This city has a little fort that is basically the Alamo of Oman.

Below is a mosque in Mirbat.

Crumbling building.

Below is a little fort. I'm not sure if it is this one or the one in the next picture but in the 1970's the communists tried to take over the government here. Just a handful of men were able to hold off a small army that greatly outnumbered them from a little fort like this (maybe this one)

Or it could be the fort below with the kids playing soccer.

We drove about an hour back East to Salalah and explored the city some more. I would post more pictures but I'm trying not to flood my posts with a million pictures. I'll put a few of them on my next post. Day 2 and 3 were definitely our most adventurous days. Our trip was half over by this point....it was going way too fast.