KHOR RORI AND THE CITY OF SUMHURAN

The port and walled city of Sumhuram were founded in the 3rd century BC. In the stone, on the bronze, its occupants left moving traces of the extinct Sudarabic language, which is now extinct. Established to control the incense trade in Dhofar, the site is identified in the 1st century as the Moscha Limen of the Eritrean Sea Journey, where Indian sailors who brought cotton cloth, corn and oil in exchange for incense spent the winter, waiting for the favourable monsoon winds to return home. During the first and second centuries AD, the port was the heart of the merchant settlement on this coast, enriched by its close links with the powerful Shabwa of Hadramaut in Yemen. At that time, it was a small walled town, two metres wide, covering about 1 hectare on a natural eminence. The decline began in the first half of the 4th century and ended at the end of the century.

On the spot, one discovers foundations that were once supposed to support a palace protected by walls and decorated with grandiose staircases, and which undoubtedly housed large incense storage stores. Excavations have revealed coins with Alexander's profile, earthenware jars, conservation jars (some of them in Roman style), bronze objects and a large incense burner. The precious resinous gum was transported by nomadic caravans from the interior and was shipped to the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and India. In exchange, ships loaded with products from Asia docked.

One can move freely in these ruins rustled with all the noise of history, without forgetting, near the car park on the right, to also follow the path that leads to a small temple near the water - a construction quite recently identified without it being possible to know with certainty which cult was practised there.

Shaped and occupied for 800 years, the site overlooks the beautiful Rori Lagoon , separated from the sea by a sandbank during the dry season and submerged during the monsoon. One could not talk about Khor Rori without mentioning the dozens of camels that come here, attracted by its greenery and freshness, as well as the numerous birds. The lagoon is indeed a nature reserve which serves as a habitat for more than a hundred species of birds including pelicans, storks, spoonbills, pink flamingos, ibis, grebes, cormorants, etc.. Fed by the wadi Darbat, it is also home to several varieties of fish and plants.

After the heatstroke of the visit and the fifteen minutes that one will devote to the small museum located 300 meters from the site, it will be time to go to the sea. From the museum car park, take the track towards the mouth of the river. Depending on the capacity of your vehicle, you will approach more or less and finish on foot to reach one of the most beautiful beaches of the sultanate: 200 metres of virgin sand between the sandstone jaws that partially block the entrance to the lagoon. To your left, the rocky spur is called Al Hamr Al Sharqiya and archaeologists have found the remains of a 700-metre long defensive wall punctuated by towers facing the sea, testimony to a late occupation between the 8th and 10th centuries, at a time when the city of incense was long since abandoned. In the heart of this site inhabited by ghosts, you will take a masterful bath!