The Shahra called their land Uz, after the patriarch who must have led them out of The Empty Quarter of the deserts. The Dhofar region is a rugged and mountainous region. Their native language is very different from Arabic, something older and called the “language of the birds.” The Shahra tribe are probably descendants of the People of ‘Ad. They are now known as the ‘lost Arabs'(al-‘Arab al-ba’ida), representing the present-day tribes of ‘Ad, Tamud and Gurhum. They were Australoid by DNA analysis and lived in Yemen and the Shahra of south-western Oman, on the Dhofar highlands. In the past the descendants of the Mahra tribe inhabited these regions. The rock drawings in the desert suggest that the prehistoric people of the second millennium were not the Arabs from the north.
Very little is known of prehistoric times in the barren deserts of Arabia. Historians chronicle Ubar’s destruction somewhere in the first century AD. It is said to have been destroyed by the cyclonic storms that swept away the fort and sucked it into the deep hole that remains even today. It is believed that like the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, it also suffered the wraths of God. Legend has it that Ubar was said to have become a hotbed of wickedness and its people corrupted by its riches. T.E Lawrence called it “The Atlantis of the Sands.” Ubar was a magnificent kingdom, immensely rich with “streets paved with gold.” It was a city of tall towers whose like had not been built ever in the whole world. Myths surrounding Ubar were unparalleled even by “lost city” standards. The Lost City of Ubar, was discovered in 1992 by NASA imaging technology by a team of British archaeologists lead by the passionate Sir Ranulph Fiennes, uncle of actor Ralph Fiennes. Tours are readily available from near-by Salalah for those curious in a site that was one mans mission for over twenty years.
#Ubar the lost city of towers full#
Today only a hole in the desert floor, a black void full of ones imagination of what this ‘Paradise on Earth’ must have been like, is what remains in present day Oman. and was a desert outpost near a verdant oasis, on the camel tracks where caravans assembled for the transport of frankincense across the desert to the rest of the world. Located in Shisr in the southern Dhofar region of Oman, it is believed that Ubar existed from about 2800 B.C.
Bedouin tales and local folklore is cited even today among the local population about the ancient city. The Holy Quran describes it as the “City of Towers”, the legends of the “Lost City of Ubar” has for centuries been one of the Middle East’s greatest mysteries. Coined ‘Paradise on Earth’ its inhabitants were also one of the richest due to the many prosperous years in the trade of priceless, exotic and luxurious commodities: fruits, silks, gemstones, spices and frankincense which was revered throughout the world. Once upon a time there was a city where the streets are paved in gold and fortified by imposing, lofty pillars unlike anything ever created in the world.
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