MUSCAT // When fishermen stumbled across the wreck of a ninth-century sailing dhow off the coast of an Indonesian island more than a decade ago, archaeologists found it laden with 60,000 pieces of rare Chinese porcelain.
The spectacular discovery threw light on an era when the Arab world’s trade ships fanned out across the world, bringing goods from the far corners of Asia and Africa.
Today, that rich maritime heritage will be brought back to life when a reconstruction of a 1,000-year-old ship will set sail from Oman destined for Singapore.
The Jewel of Muscat, an 18-metre dhow weighing 50 tonnes, will trace a famous ancient trade route in a five-month voyage from Oman to the far east.
The vessel has been painstakingly built by Omani ship builders using traditional techniques from the ninth century. No nails were used and planks were sewed together watertight with coconut fibre. The wood is protected by a layer of goat fat mixed with lime, according to the Jewel’s Omani captain, Saleh Said al Jabri.
“We have to follow the local tradition in building the vessel otherwise the whole voyage will have no meaning. Most of the timber those days was imported by Omani sailors from abroad and brought here for construction,” Capt al Jabri said.
The men in charge of finding the right materials were the archaeologists Luca Belfioretti, from Italy, and Tom Vosmer, from Australia. They made trips to Pune in India in search of wood and also to Ghana for the Afzelia Africana timber. Both woods are known for their ability to withstand a battering by rough seas and bad weather, they said.
“The West African and India connection of timber used for the construction of a boat in Oman those days is based on archaeological evidence,” Mr Belfioretti said.
The vessel will depart from the yard where it was built in Qantab, a fishing village near Muscat that is part of Oman’s rich maritime tradition of seafarers setting off across the world on trade missions.
“The overall distance is roughly about 3,000 nautical miles, depending on the wind direction. The vessel will be on the mercy of the wind and will not sail in a straight line,” Capt al Jabri said.
The voyage, sponsored by Oman’s ministry of foreign affairs, came from an idea proposed by Singapore and is being funded by both countries.
The journey was inspired by the ship that went down in the ninth century off Belitung, an island on the east coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, according to Mr Vosmer. The wreck was accidentally discovered by fishermen in 1998 and the Indonesian government gave a German company permission to excavate the wreck. The rich cargo that it was carrying became known as the Tang Treasures.
The German excavators found 60,000 pieces of rare Chinese porcelain when they lifted the ship. International experts who identified the Tang Treasures said they were produced from kilns in what is now the Chinese province of Hunan.
Indonesian authorities in published reports said that the treasures include rare blue and white porcelain, tricoloured glazed pottery from the Tang dynasty and three early Qinghua plates, the best preserved of their kind ever found.
They also said the Arabic inscriptions found on some of the pieces suggested the pottery was produced and transported in the early ninth century, and carbon dating has confirmed this.
The Arabic inscription is a strong indication that the treasures were being exported to Arab countries. The shipwreck itself also revealed much about Arab shipbuilding and navigation from the period. Well-preserved fragments of the ship showed that stitching was used by Arab craftsmen to bind the timber of the hull, the Indonesian authorities said.
Mr Vosmer, a maritime archaeologist based in Muscat, believes the sunken ship was built in Oman and carried the treasure from China for export destined to one of the Arab countries.
Mr Vosmer hopes the Jewel of Muscat will not only publicise Oman’s former maritime greatness but also shed some light on the sunken ship.
“We are looking to discover more about how the original ship was built, how it handled and how it sailed. As well as this, we are hoping to find out what life on board was like and even perhaps why it sank,” Mr Vosmer said.
The Jewel of Muscat’s crew will employ ninth century navigational methods including a technique called Al Kamal, which determines the latitude of the celestial bodies to calculate the distance to a given destination.
Capt al Jabri will have 17 other people on-board, including nine Omani sailors helped by four trainee crew, a couple of technical support personnel, a journalist from the National Geographic magazine, a video cameramen and a photographer.
Capt al Jabri was born in Haramel in Muscat, in his parents’ house just metres away from the beach. He has 23-years of sailing experience, the majority of it working for the Royal Navy of Oman onboard its tall ship, the Shabab Oman. He holds a position of a training officer on the ship, which has sailed around the world several times for international regattas and historic voyages.
“It is not going to be a smooth sailing to Singapore. We expect very rough weather in the Bay of Bengal. It is the one of the most hostile patches of water in the world. It is a journey of perseverance where everybody on-board will live on minimum and basic surroundings during the course of the journey,” Capt al Jabri said.
The vessel will have only a radio for emergency calls and will have no other ships to escort it. Everybody onboard will sleep on bunks and use the same galley and toilet facilities used by ancient Omani mariners. The diet will be primarily dates, dried fish, rice and plenty of coffee served in traditional cups.
The first port of call from Muscat will be India’s Cochin after a month at sea. The crew will break for two to four weeks to carry out maintenance. The trainee crew of different nationalities will be replaced by a new team.
The ship will then sail on the monsoon wind towards Sri Lanka to dock at the south-western port of Galle for another two-week maintenance break. Depending on the monsoon, the journey will take 10 to 14 days.
“Then we will start our sternest challenge of the journey,” Capt al Jabri said, “across the Bay of Bengal. It is not the easiest route and one of the busiest in the world and notorious for its bad weather.”
If all goes well, Capt al Jabri will guide the vessel to Penang in northern Malaysia. “Depending on south-westerly wind and how rough the sailing will be, we expect to reach Penang in three to four weeks. But we are going to stop for only a few days, mostly a week, because we don’t want to miss the monsoon wind blowing towards our next stop in Malacca,” he explained.
The trip to Malacca is expected to last a week and the crew will rest a few days before embarking for their final destination in Singapore. They expect to arrive there in early July.
“The voyage’s schedule will depend on the weather conditions because the ship has no engine and will entirely rely on the monsoon’s winds,” Chris Beggins, the voyage’s project manager said.
The Jewel of Muscat will be placed in a museum in the city state, its final resting place, in accordance with an agreement between Oman and Singapore.
salshaibany@thenational.ae
Source: The National: Jewel sets sail on a tide of history
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Monday, 15 February 2010
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Fragrant memories
SINBAD the sailor was here. Or at least the Omanis I meet swear this is
true. The famed teller of tall tales was born in the port of Sohar, or so the story goes. Perhaps he was, but some historians suggest Sinbad hailed from ancient Persia or Mesopotamia. Others cruelly contend he didn't exist and was a composite based on adventurers who took to sailing ships to spread Islam. Omanis ranged far and wide: hunger for prized spices meant the isle of Zanzibar, off Tanzania's coast, was Oman-ruled for almost two centuries until 1856.
Marco Polo visited Oman in 1285, extolling a frankincense port called al-Baleed, where contemporary archeologists now sweat in roped-off surrounds on the outskirts of Salalah, Oman's second city. Even more revered is Ibn Battuta, a renowned 14th-century wanderer who, as a Moroccan, is accurately described as the Arab world's, as well as Africa's, most intrepid traveller. The Arabian Peninsula, I'm frequently reminded, is a bridge between Africa and Asia.
From al-Baleed's brown walls of stone, their remains seldom more than waist-high, I head into the adjoining Museum of the Frankincense Land. It encapsulates Omani history and the pivotal role of frankincense trading as well as showcasing contemporary Oman, the petrochemical industry and the initiatives of head of state Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said.
Then there's the queen of Sheba. Many Omanis believe one of her palaces was within another frankincense port, Samhuram, at Khor Rori, a half hour's drive from Salalah; it can take longer if wandering camels linger while crossing the asphalt highway. An ostentatiously wealthy monarch, the queen reputedly showered King Solomon, builder of the first temple in Jerusalem, with lavish gifts of frankincense.
Some authorities pooh-pooh this, insisting the queen of Sheba -- whose kingdom reputedly encompassed parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen -- was unfamiliar with Samhuram.
Whatever the truth, there's no disputing this Dhofar governorate oozes colourful stories in a complex intertwining of history and legend. Archeological digs continue at various locations, unearthing the past and exposing the fanciful.
Tourists come increasingly to Salalah, rambling amid ruins and lazing at beach resorts; they are attracted because Salalah is an Omani oddity where monsoonal rains, absent elsewhere in Arabia, allow bananas and other tropical fruits to be cultivated, sometimes surrounded by extreme aridity. Other pursuits include wadi-bashing (in four-wheel-drive vehicles on dry riverbeds), dune-bashing (plunging from dune cliffs in 4WDs, with soft sand slowing downward speed), sea trips to view dolphin pods and trudges along remote beaches where turtles hatch.
A common thread through Oman's past is the frankincense trade. Capitalising on this, Oman terms itself "the frankincense land". It is as much a symbol of the sultanate as distinctive headgear and khanjars (curved daggers). Omanis boast of their history and their preservation of the old, in stark contrast to the neighbouring emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where the emphasis is firmly on the new.
Dried resin from frankincense trees is still placed in pebble-sized pieces in burners in homes and workplaces, emitting a pleasing aroma, much like musky incense. The smell is in the smoke.
Some of Oman's most eye-catching monuments are shaped like giant frankincense burners. Frankincense is harvested mainly for perfume-making. It's an ingredient, too, at Amouage, an Omani venture supported by Sultan Qaboos that produces expensive fragrances sold at duty-free shops and perfumeries worldwide.
Britain's T.E. Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, suspected that land near an oasis named Shisr in Oman's Empty Quarter -- a forbidding but enticing zone of shifting sands -- concealed the legendary lost city of Ubar. Subsequent archeological research, using space-age sensing equipment, has confirmed this. Researchers believe references to a place called Irem in the Koran relate to Ubar, a hub of the frankincense business. Trade routes led to and from it before the city disappeared under drifting dunes. Digs have so far unearthed a fort, towers, city walls and artefacts.
Shisr is part of a World Heritage-listed frankincense trail but because it is 200km from Salalah it is less visited than easily accessible al-Baleed, Khor Rori and Wadi Dawkah Frankincense Park. Friends in Muscat, Oman's capital, are unanimous: Samhuram at Khor Rori is the most impressive set of ruins. They're right, though al-Baleed, handily at Salalah's edge, better suits the exceedingly time-poor.
Historical daydreams envelop me as, with a driver named Ali, I negotiate hairpin bends on a one-hour climb into the Dhofar Mountains. Ali, though friendly, is less loquacious than most Omanis I meet. Conversations are usually one of the joys of Oman. Fortunately, Ali isn't a frustrated rally driver so I have plenty of time to think on the road to Wadi Dawkah. We sit behind trucks piled high with bananas on their 1000km journey from Salalah to Muscat. They struggle, sometimes slowing to less than walking pace.
When our descent begins, the pace quickens. We turn from highway to dirt track; a sign announces Wadi Dawkah Frankincense Park. Frankincense comes from an arid-zone tree of the same name, not among the world's prettiest. Occasionally emerging from seemingly solid rock where roots penetrate the narrowest of crevices, these trees often grow near wadis supplying access to subterranean moisture.
Ali scoops seeping resin from one of many trunks and holds it beneath my nose. The gorgeous fragrance is unmistakably frankincense. Khor Rori's pathways take me through the ruins of 4th-century Samhuram: residential areas, shops and frankincense storage areas (but no visible remnants as yet of the queen of Sheba's purported palace). The area, about 200m by 50m, offers splendid views of the sea and countryside. I pause at one of several look-outs to gaze across calm sea towards the horizon, imagining sailing ships laden with fragrant cargoes heading to distant destinations. Between me and the sea is the bluest of lagoons, a safe haven for sailing ships. Khors are lagoons with openings to the sea, a common feature of the local landscape. Frankincense, Ali reminds me, was transported to this port on camels' backs along desert trade routes. I turn from the sea. The Dhofar Mountains rise in the distance. From these ranges to the coast is a rocky plain with little vegetation. It reminds me of travelling from Western Australia to South Australia across the Nullarbor Plain. Then, far away, I spot camels, 18 in all and moving in a line across this harsh vista.
Not all the ruins in the Salalah area are frankincense related. At Beit Zarbij, 27km from Salalah, is Job's Tomb, burial place of a prophet featured in the Old Testament and the Koran. A nearby spring called Sharsate is said to have gushed wildly in response to one of Job's prayers; it's another reminder that Oman is a meeting place of history and legend.
Chris Pritchard was a guest of Oman Air.
Checklist
Fly to Oman via Abu Dhabi with Etihad, via Dubai with Emirates or via Bangkok with Thai Airways. Oman Air flies from Muscat to Salalah. Thai Airways has economy-class return fares to Muscat from $1702 and Bangkok stopovers from $9 a person. More: www.thaiairways.com.au; www.omanair.aero.
Creative Tours has an eight-day Classical Oman tour from $2711 a person twin-share that includes Muscat and Salalah; the cost covers return flights from Muscat to Salalah, seven nights in four-star accommodation, some meals, transfers, entrance fees and guided sightseeing with English-speaking driver. More: www.creativeholidays.com.au.
Muscat's top accommodation ranges from the beachside Shangri-la Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa and the Grand Hyatt Muscat, to the luxury low-rise Chedi Muscat. More: www.shangri-la.com; www.hyatt.com; www.ghmhotels.com.
www.omantourism.gov.om
Source: The Australian
true. The famed teller of tall tales was born in the port of Sohar, or so the story goes. Perhaps he was, but some historians suggest Sinbad hailed from ancient Persia or Mesopotamia. Others cruelly contend he didn't exist and was a composite based on adventurers who took to sailing ships to spread Islam. Omanis ranged far and wide: hunger for prized spices meant the isle of Zanzibar, off Tanzania's coast, was Oman-ruled for almost two centuries until 1856.
Marco Polo visited Oman in 1285, extolling a frankincense port called al-Baleed, where contemporary archeologists now sweat in roped-off surrounds on the outskirts of Salalah, Oman's second city. Even more revered is Ibn Battuta, a renowned 14th-century wanderer who, as a Moroccan, is accurately described as the Arab world's, as well as Africa's, most intrepid traveller. The Arabian Peninsula, I'm frequently reminded, is a bridge between Africa and Asia.
From al-Baleed's brown walls of stone, their remains seldom more than waist-high, I head into the adjoining Museum of the Frankincense Land. It encapsulates Omani history and the pivotal role of frankincense trading as well as showcasing contemporary Oman, the petrochemical industry and the initiatives of head of state Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said.
Then there's the queen of Sheba. Many Omanis believe one of her palaces was within another frankincense port, Samhuram, at Khor Rori, a half hour's drive from Salalah; it can take longer if wandering camels linger while crossing the asphalt highway. An ostentatiously wealthy monarch, the queen reputedly showered King Solomon, builder of the first temple in Jerusalem, with lavish gifts of frankincense.
Some authorities pooh-pooh this, insisting the queen of Sheba -- whose kingdom reputedly encompassed parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen -- was unfamiliar with Samhuram.
Whatever the truth, there's no disputing this Dhofar governorate oozes colourful stories in a complex intertwining of history and legend. Archeological digs continue at various locations, unearthing the past and exposing the fanciful.
Tourists come increasingly to Salalah, rambling amid ruins and lazing at beach resorts; they are attracted because Salalah is an Omani oddity where monsoonal rains, absent elsewhere in Arabia, allow bananas and other tropical fruits to be cultivated, sometimes surrounded by extreme aridity. Other pursuits include wadi-bashing (in four-wheel-drive vehicles on dry riverbeds), dune-bashing (plunging from dune cliffs in 4WDs, with soft sand slowing downward speed), sea trips to view dolphin pods and trudges along remote beaches where turtles hatch.
A common thread through Oman's past is the frankincense trade. Capitalising on this, Oman terms itself "the frankincense land". It is as much a symbol of the sultanate as distinctive headgear and khanjars (curved daggers). Omanis boast of their history and their preservation of the old, in stark contrast to the neighbouring emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where the emphasis is firmly on the new.
Dried resin from frankincense trees is still placed in pebble-sized pieces in burners in homes and workplaces, emitting a pleasing aroma, much like musky incense. The smell is in the smoke.
Some of Oman's most eye-catching monuments are shaped like giant frankincense burners. Frankincense is harvested mainly for perfume-making. It's an ingredient, too, at Amouage, an Omani venture supported by Sultan Qaboos that produces expensive fragrances sold at duty-free shops and perfumeries worldwide.
Britain's T.E. Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, suspected that land near an oasis named Shisr in Oman's Empty Quarter -- a forbidding but enticing zone of shifting sands -- concealed the legendary lost city of Ubar. Subsequent archeological research, using space-age sensing equipment, has confirmed this. Researchers believe references to a place called Irem in the Koran relate to Ubar, a hub of the frankincense business. Trade routes led to and from it before the city disappeared under drifting dunes. Digs have so far unearthed a fort, towers, city walls and artefacts.
Shisr is part of a World Heritage-listed frankincense trail but because it is 200km from Salalah it is less visited than easily accessible al-Baleed, Khor Rori and Wadi Dawkah Frankincense Park. Friends in Muscat, Oman's capital, are unanimous: Samhuram at Khor Rori is the most impressive set of ruins. They're right, though al-Baleed, handily at Salalah's edge, better suits the exceedingly time-poor.
Historical daydreams envelop me as, with a driver named Ali, I negotiate hairpin bends on a one-hour climb into the Dhofar Mountains. Ali, though friendly, is less loquacious than most Omanis I meet. Conversations are usually one of the joys of Oman. Fortunately, Ali isn't a frustrated rally driver so I have plenty of time to think on the road to Wadi Dawkah. We sit behind trucks piled high with bananas on their 1000km journey from Salalah to Muscat. They struggle, sometimes slowing to less than walking pace.
When our descent begins, the pace quickens. We turn from highway to dirt track; a sign announces Wadi Dawkah Frankincense Park. Frankincense comes from an arid-zone tree of the same name, not among the world's prettiest. Occasionally emerging from seemingly solid rock where roots penetrate the narrowest of crevices, these trees often grow near wadis supplying access to subterranean moisture.
Ali scoops seeping resin from one of many trunks and holds it beneath my nose. The gorgeous fragrance is unmistakably frankincense. Khor Rori's pathways take me through the ruins of 4th-century Samhuram: residential areas, shops and frankincense storage areas (but no visible remnants as yet of the queen of Sheba's purported palace). The area, about 200m by 50m, offers splendid views of the sea and countryside. I pause at one of several look-outs to gaze across calm sea towards the horizon, imagining sailing ships laden with fragrant cargoes heading to distant destinations. Between me and the sea is the bluest of lagoons, a safe haven for sailing ships. Khors are lagoons with openings to the sea, a common feature of the local landscape. Frankincense, Ali reminds me, was transported to this port on camels' backs along desert trade routes. I turn from the sea. The Dhofar Mountains rise in the distance. From these ranges to the coast is a rocky plain with little vegetation. It reminds me of travelling from Western Australia to South Australia across the Nullarbor Plain. Then, far away, I spot camels, 18 in all and moving in a line across this harsh vista.
Not all the ruins in the Salalah area are frankincense related. At Beit Zarbij, 27km from Salalah, is Job's Tomb, burial place of a prophet featured in the Old Testament and the Koran. A nearby spring called Sharsate is said to have gushed wildly in response to one of Job's prayers; it's another reminder that Oman is a meeting place of history and legend.
Chris Pritchard was a guest of Oman Air.
Checklist
Fly to Oman via Abu Dhabi with Etihad, via Dubai with Emirates or via Bangkok with Thai Airways. Oman Air flies from Muscat to Salalah. Thai Airways has economy-class return fares to Muscat from $1702 and Bangkok stopovers from $9 a person. More: www.thaiairways.com.au; www.omanair.aero.
Creative Tours has an eight-day Classical Oman tour from $2711 a person twin-share that includes Muscat and Salalah; the cost covers return flights from Muscat to Salalah, seven nights in four-star accommodation, some meals, transfers, entrance fees and guided sightseeing with English-speaking driver. More: www.creativeholidays.com.au.
Muscat's top accommodation ranges from the beachside Shangri-la Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa and the Grand Hyatt Muscat, to the luxury low-rise Chedi Muscat. More: www.shangri-la.com; www.hyatt.com; www.ghmhotels.com.
www.omantourism.gov.om
Source: The Australian
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