How Did the Jaredites Get to the Sea? – Part II

Once across the “many waters” the scripture states that the “Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness” (Ether 2:7). If this “sea in the wilderness” was indeed the Persian Gulf, which is at the southern drainage of the marshland just crossed, and large enough to have been called a sea by the Jaredites, there is nothing but desert wilderness beyond—indeed, it is a “sea in the wilderness.”

Through this wilderness, or uninhabited region, the colony traveled along the seashore in a southeasterly direction until they reached the area of the Qatar peninsula. From this point, they headed into the Ar Rab’al Khali, or Empty Quarter, where truly “never had man been.” (Ether 2:5)
Once into this area, referred to simply as the Sands by the Bedouins, they would have picked up the Dakakah Trail, one of only two ways across the uninhabited southern Arabian Peninsula to the coast. In 2100 B.C., in 600 B.C., and up until the 20th century, man crossed this desert, if he did at all, where the water holes were—to go elsewhere was to die!

The water holes along the Gulf are the wells at Thaj and Gerrha, then along the Dakakah Trail to the wells at Jabrin, Maqainama, Na’ifa, Shanna, Khor Daliya Mitan, Shis’r and then to the Frankincense harbor at Khor Rori along the Salalah coastal plain in southern Oman. Actually, it was not really a trail in the traditional sense—there were no worn tracks in the sand from long and steady use of the camel caravans which did not show up along this inland route until about 2000 years after the Jaredites crossed it, yet it was a route because it moved from water hole to water hole, and would have been the only way to travel from north to south across the Arabian Peninsula through the Empty Quarter.

This Rub’ al Khali, or Empty Quarter, is the great south desert of the Arabian Peninsula encompassing 250,000 square miles, is 600 miles long and 300 miles wide, and larger than the Netherlands, Belgium and France combined, with sand dunes over 1000 feet high—taller than the Eiffel Tower. It is the largest sand desert, with the largest continuous sand, in the world

The last waterhole along the path the Jareditezs took on the Dakakah Trail beyond the nearly impassable massive dunes, before crossing the desert plateau and dropping down into the refreshingly coastal area of Salalah is that of Shisr. The oasis of al Shisra (in the Niyabat of al Shisr) lies 100 miles north of Salalah, with wadis choked with abundant palm trees and extending right into the heart of the pebbly desert separating the Qara Mountains from the Empty Quarter.

The Jaredites must have been thrilled to reach Shisr after crossing the Empty Quarter and then see beyond to the green hills of the Qara Mountains above Salalah. These mountains rise to about 3,000 to 4,000 feet and keep the summer monsoons from crossing into the desert beyond. Here the Jaredites rested before making their final trek to the great sea.

The tiny oasis settlement of Shisr was rediscovered in 1992 when satellite images were confirmed, and was a legendary city that grew to great wealth off the Frankincense Trail business sometime after the Jaredites passed there. It has natural underground reservoirs of water, and today is called the Wadi Dawkah Frankincense Park where many of the trees fueling the Frankincense trade grew. Ten miles beyond the mountains, the great sea waited for the final chapter of the Jaredite adventure.

Once leaving Shisr, the Jaredites traveled across the pebbly desert between the mountainous sand dunes of the Empty Quarter and the Qara Mountains. At the crest of the ascent the Jaredites would have moved into the Elysian fields of the Qara Mountains, which surround Salalah like a green velvety cloak. During three or four of the summer months each year, these mountains are like magnets, drawing clouds close down to the ground and travelers soon find themselves moving through a grey leaden mass, barely able to see beyond a foot or two. Here they would have passed by coconut palms, which has been a staple in Salalah for centuries.
As the Jaredites descended, they would have been struck with the remarkable contrast to the rest of the Arabian Peninsula just passed through—after the arid brown of the desert, the little crescent of mountains is a small paradise on the shores of the Arabian Sea. With crescents of white sands stretching as far as they could see, it's no wonder the Jaredites decided to pitch their tents and stay a while—a respite that lasted four years. This area along the seashore has a wondrous climate, and is watered copiously by summer monsoons, making the coast green and inviting. But the Lord was not well pleased and called the Brother of Jared to task after these four years. He had in mind for them to build the barges that would take them beyond the “great sea which divideth the lands” and to the land of promise which awaited them.