Things to see and do Salalah

Even if it is less frequented than in the past, even if it sometimes seems disused, even if there is talk of it closing (when?) to be replaced by a "new incense souk that would respect a traditional spirit in terms of architecture and layout", it is to this day and in our eyes one of the most hypnotizing souks of the sultanate: a place carrying the brewing, the historical roads, the trading traditions.... perhaps because the women (originally the only tenants of the place, which is no longer the case today) have here faces where faraway Africa mingles with Arabia, colorful outfits, poses that make each stall a painting in the Brueghel oriental version. It's not big, you can go around it quite quickly and yet, each time, you turn around and go back for hours on end as if that were the magic of the place: in its small size, the welcome of the shoppers, the ambient kindness, the authenticity of the scents and of the old days.

It is here that you will find the largest number of varieties of incense and perfumes in the country. The stalls, all similar, are glued together. The white incense is called hujari. It is the most expensive, but also the purest compared to the others, more colourful and much cheaper. Known throughout the world, it is used in the composition of many great perfumes, including Amouage, the olfactory claw of the Sultanate. Also to be found: perfume burners and some souvenirs (stoles, pashminas, wooden canes, etc.).

Very beautiful, this mosque was built in August 2009. The building is imposing. Adorned with two minarets, it blends into the landscape by its beige and sand colors. Inside the large prayer hall, one can admire a huge carpet made of a single piece and a surface of 4 200 m². Several masterful Swarovski crystal chandeliers also contrast with the sobriety of the whole. A special mention for the particularly spectacular one placed in the center of the room. Outside, a pleasant garden unfolds.

Situated on the seafront, a stone's throw from the heart of the city and close to a khor supplying fresh water from the mountains, Al Balid forms a vast complex measuring 1,600 metres by 400 metres. An extraordinary site, it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000 under the generic term "Land of Incense". Archaeological excavations begun in 1952 revealed in 1970 the remains of an ancient city identified as Zafar, visited by Marco Polo in 1295. They also revealed the presence of an earlier Iron Age settlement. This settlement probably survived long after the Iron Age, despite the absence of any specific mention in Ptolemy's Geographia. Its importance in the Islamic era is beyond doubt, and its re-foundation in its current geography seems to date back to the ^11th century. The city began to decline in the ^12th century. In the ^13th century, it was annexed and partially destroyed on several occasions, both by Arab rulers and by Persian invaders. Ibn Battuta, the indefatigable Tangier native, discovered it in 1331. Horses, fish oil and, above all, incense were exported there. From here, for centuries, caravans headed north to Petra, Alexandria and beyond to Sumer, Persia and Greece. It was also in the port of Al-Balid that incense cargoes were loaded on their way up the Red Sea.

Excavations have uncovered the remains of a palace and a large mosque. You can also still see where the bodies of the deceased were washed before being buried in the nearby cemetery. At the end of the ^15th century, the radical changes to trade patterns imposed by the Portuguese and other European trading nations sealed the city's fate.

The only fully excavatedsite is that of the great ^10th-centurymosque, which measured 40 by 48.5 meters and was surrounded by an outer platform on all sides except the east, where the ablutions platform was located. The main prayer hall was flanked by several rows of octagonal columns, 144 in all, which supported the roof, the construction of which is unknown. These columns (one of which is preserved in the museum), reduced in height, can still be seen today, as you head west, to the right, from the park entrance. Thanks to the visionary action of the authorities and the support of archaeologist Michael Jansen from the University of Aachen in Germany, Al Balid is a buried city that is no longer totally buried. The ruins can be explored on foot, and in part by small boat, along well-defined paths until they reach the seafront, within the framework of an archaeological park.

The museum is logically named Terre de l'Encens (Land of Incense ), in keeping with its UNESCO designation. It is divided into two parts: one devoted to the history of incense and the Sultanate of Oman, the other to maritime history. The first room, at the far end of the courtyard, contains a relief model of the sultanate. The floor is covered with every type of sand found in the country and the walls are covered with photographs. The four varieties of incense produced in Oman are on display, including the famous Al Hojari: a top-quality resin often used for medical treatment. Numerous artefacts, dating from prehistoric times to the present day and discovered in archaeological digs in the adjacent park, are also on display.

The maritime section meticulously recreates the various facets of a relationship with the marine world whose first manifestations date back to the ^4th millennium B.C. Shipbuilding, navigation, maritime routes and far-flung trading posts reveal the creativity of master carpenters and the entrepreneurial spirit of these sailor-merchants who, long before our era, dared to embark on a maritime adventure. This section is the culmination of decades of research: by archaeologists, who have succeeded in reconstructing the boats of the ^3rd millennium B.CC; those of naval architects and shipwrights who have painstakingly drawn up plans of wrecks on the verge of disappearing forever; those of Mesopotamian specialists who, through these clay tablets, reveal what the first commercial exchanges with the Arabian Peninsula were like; and finally, those of historians and curators from Muscat and Cairo, as well as the Louvre and the British Museum, who have willingly opened their collections to us.

The section devoted to navigation shows how Oman's herders and caravan chiefs, these desert navigators, took to the sea and quickly acquired the art of navigation. The museum also exhibits a whole range of instrumentsincludingancient terrestrial globes and fabulous astrolabes, such as the one by Al Naqashi dated 1080. Brass astrolabes were made all over the Muslim world, and used mainly to find the qibla (direction of Mecca). The earliest specimen dates from 927-928. The manufacture of the first astrolabe in the Muslim world is attributed to Muhammad al-Fazari

Also on site : a coffee shop, a craft boutique and a bookshop.

Imran and Hannah had a daughter whom they named Maryam, the one who was to become Umm Issa, the mother of Jesus. Let us read the Qur'an again: "Remember the day when Imran's wife prayed to God: 'Lord, I have consecrated to you what is in my womb, it will be yours in full; accept it, for you hear and know everything. When she gave birth, she said, "Lord, I have given birth to a daughter, and I have named her Maryam; I place her and her offspring under your protection, that you may preserve them from the wiles of Satan the stoned In the Christian tradition, the same story is written under different names as Imran becomes Joachim and Hannah is called Hannah. Their story appears in the apocryphal Gospel of James. Joachim is described as a rich and pious man who regularly gives to the poor. However, because his wife is barren (a sign of divine displeasure), the High Priest rejects Joachim. Joachim withdrew to the desert where he fasted for forty days. Angels appear to him and promise him a child. Joachim returns to Jerusalem and finds Anne whom he "embraces". And so, oh surprise! It is the tomb of Joachim, the maternal grandfather of Jesus-Isa and one of the 25 prophets mentioned in the Koran that we find two kilometers from the old airport. Take off your shoes and enter the mausoleum adjacent to the mosque for an out-of-bounds experience. There, in an ethereal halo, it is indeed a 13-meter long tomb, giving off something intensely mysterious and surreal.

Pierre Assouline, author of Vies de Job, says: "The character trait of Job that I remember most is his ability to resist. Everything gathers against him, starting with his god, which is quite something! His body is martyred, he is abandoned by all, and even there, in the depths of this absolute solitude, he continues to resist. He does not give up. This is an extraordinary lesson Whether Ayyoub (Job) existed or not is not the question, because in the general opinion of Dhofarien, he is buried there in this small mausoleum topped by a dome adjacent to a small mosque. A character common to the three religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, he is the hero of the Book of Job, a didactic prose poem common to the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, considered a masterpiece of biblical literature. Job is mentioned in the Koran, among the 25 prophets, in the same way as Adam, Solomon, Moses or Jesus. According to the Talmud, he was one of the three advisors consulted by the Pharaoh of the Exodus before making a decision concerning the children of Israel who were multiplying in an alarming way, the one who did not oppose the elimination of newborn males. It is for this silence that God will punish him in this way. There is nothing to explain his presence in the mountains of Salalah, except the popular account of a legendary trace. The story of this prophet could make a good subject for the baccalaureate: "Is misfortune always the result of a divine punishment? Why is the innocent man also called to suffer? Satan, trusting in Job's weakness, proposes the form of a trial: "Stretch out your hand; touch his possessions, and we will see if he does not deny you to your face." God accepts the proposal. In a few hours Job sees himself stripped of everything, reduced to begging, deprived of children. Nevertheless, he does not deny God. Satan does not consider himself defeated. " Stretch out your hand; touch his bones and his flesh, and see if he does not deny you to yourface And here is the servant of God afflicted with leprosy. Then Job gets up, tears his cloak and shaves his head; then he throws himself on the ground, prostrates himself and says: "I came out of my mother's womb naked, and naked I shall return to the earth. The Lord gave, and the Lord took away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Immediately thereafter, God restores Job's wealth, giving him twice the wealth he had, and 10 children. Job lived a holy and happy life and died a beautiful death. In Salalah? How to know? In Oman, no information or reflection is offered on the intellectual work attributed to Ayyub, despite his dazzling thoughts and the exegesis made of them by some and others, believers or agitators of ideas. Of a serene banality, the place of his last rest is moreover quite modest, tiled, very simple and without any ornament. It might disappoint if the aura surrounding the man were not so great and if the access road itself, open to the vast surrounding plains, were not worth the journey by its quiet beauty.

Continuing on the main road to Jebel Al-Qara (6 km after Job's tomb), one reaches the village of Titam. Pass it, then stop a few kilometers further to appreciate the landscape. We are here at the top of the plateaus. By continuing the road until Uyun, one will be able to see trees with incense.

To reach Ain Razat, take the direction of Mirbat then, shortly after Salalah, the spring is indicated 8 km on the left. We arrive at the foot of the Jebel Al-Qara; many springs flow along the wall to end up in the same basin, itself connected to a falaj system in charge of irrigating the region. A park, open only at weekends, has been set up at this point. The springs of Hamran are located a little further on. First take the road to Mirbat and then follow the road that goes to the left towards Ain Hamran until a dead end.

It is the childhood residence of the late Sultan Qaboos, now reserved for great national ceremonies. Every year, after the monsoon, a thorough cleaning of its Taqah stones takes place, one of the great pride of the region. The palace is of course closed to the public, and you won't see much from the road, but it is said that, during his periods of residence in Salalah, Sultan Qaboos used to drive around the area in his car and offer to grant a wish to anyone who called him...

To get there, take the Atin Road (the one that also leads to Job's tomb), in the direction of the village of Atin for about fifteen kilometers from the city center, then you reach a dead end. The area around the spring has been landscaped with picnic and rest areas, benches, steps to access the water... The site is especially interesting in summer when the spring, fed by regular rains, forms a superb waterfall. The water is then centralized in aflaj which supply the nearby village.

Located west of Salalah, this lagoon is a privileged place to observe birds (pale sparrows, marouettes, many wading…). Equip itself with binoculars and come early in the morning trying to surprise, through the wire, the life of these migrants.

The story, as recorded in the Qur'an, tells that the Prophet and Messenger Sauliah, at the request of Allah himself, endeavoured to teach faith in one God to the Thamudites, polytheistic troglodytes: "O my people! Worship God! There is no God but he. A proof has come to you: God's camel, as a sign for you. Let her graze the land of God, do not touch her with any evil. Otherwise, a painful punishment will seize you. The Prophet declared that this camel would need water and he established a rule: the people would now have access to water only every other day, the other day being reserved for the animal. After a few weeks, disgruntled people were heard: "They killed the camel, disobeyed the command of their Lord and said, 'O Saleh, bring us what you threaten us with, if you are one of the Messengers. When Sunday morning came, they perfumed themselves and sat down, waiting for the punishment that was to come. After the sunrise, a mighty breath came from the sky and a cry went out from below them. All the souls died and all movement stopped. According to tradition, the rock here, which is protected and visually accessible to visitors, would bear the traces of the camel's footsteps and the blood of her wounds; the other footprints would be those of the prophet and his cane. Do not expect anything spectacular; objectively speaking, the site is quite strange, but the believers seem attached to it. Provide a telephoto lens to capture the details!

To add a touch of green, pleasant during the winter season, here's the beautiful Salalah Park just a few steps from the business district, the city's chic area with beautiful residential homes. The park forms a beautiful shaded area, very frequented by the locals. It is open only during the day and some time slots are reserved for women.

This wild lagoon is part of a group of seven others, all located in Dhofar, protected and classified as reserves. The one of ad Dahariz has the particularity to cut the long coastal road which traces on about thirty kilometers between Salalah and Taqah. Far from the hustle and bustle of the city, it materializes in a way the eastern border of the metropolis. The density of its vegetation provides a providential habitat for hundreds of birds, including many migratory species that can be observed from shelters designed for ornithology

Emblematic of the cultural landscape of Dhofar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wadi Dawkah is the perfect illustration of the incense biosphere: a wadi draining northwards at the edge of the desert with incense trees scattered over a flat area of about 5 km². The higher areas of the park are largely populated by acacia and similar species, capable of withstanding the most extreme conditions. The Boswellia sacra is here in its limestone kingdom, a small deciduous tree of 2 to 8 meters in height, whose paper-like bark peels easily. Only the male tree produces the precious resin, but it takes a good ten years for it to provide a product of the best possible quality. The bark is incised by removing a long, narrow strip, then the area is scraped clean, and the gum-resin concretions are collected by dropping them into a container. The resin secretions, hardened by contact with air, are collected two to three weeks later; these solidified drops can be more than 2 cm long. A mature tree generally produces 3 to 4 kg of incense per season. On site, a shelter with benches allows to observe the landscape while remaining in the shade.

Other associated sites classified by Unesco under the title "Land of incense": the port of Khor Rori (40 km east of Salalah), that of Al Baleed (on the seafront in Salalah) and the city-oasis of Ubar/Shisr at 170 km from the city in the Rub Al Khali desert.

White sand and coconut trees, that's what the beaches of Salalah look like in two words. A ribbon of fine sand winds along the coast for at least 30 km between the industrial port in the west and Taqah in the east. Without going too far from the center, shortly after the section occupied by the large hotels, one reaches the public beach of Dahariz. The first part of the beach is lined with cafes and restaurants, a promenade and shaded gazebos equipped with BBQs. It becomes wilder after the Khawr ad Dahariz lagoon, which forces you to leave the coastal road for a few kilometers.