Top:
The Rub’al-Khali, the Empty Quarter and largest Sand Desert in the World;
Middle and Bottom: The Wadi Dirbat, situated above Khor Rori in the Dhofar
region of Oman
The Wadi Dirbat is a marvelous and beautiful
piece of nature within easy distance of Salalah in Oman. After traveling for eight
years in the wilderness, the last several across the Rub’al Khali sand desert,
this land as it appeared from over the crest of the Qara Mountains as they
passed over and down in entering the Salalah Plain, by contrast, was not only
an oasis where they could camp and rest up, but a veritable “bounty” of land
full of everything the sand desert did not have, including "fruit trees and honey."
The (yellow arrow) canyon entrance into the (white arrow) Salalah Plain (the Gerbeeb) and then a short distance to the east was (blue arrow) Khor Rori, a fresh water river that ran down from (green arrow) the Wadi Dirbat (Darbat) situated above and overlooking Khor Rori, where existed a forest of trees, fresh water lake, and a veritable paradise
During the June to September (even
later) Kareef season above Wadi Dirbat the air is foggy and vision limited
within the clouds, especially in June and July, such as at Taiq Cave. But in
the Wadi it is a veritable paradise, with fresh water (khor) running down falls into the inlet below flowing past Khor
Rhori and into the Sea of Arabia beyond the cliffs. Forests cover the hills,
several of which could have been felled by Nephi and sent into the river to
flow down to the harbor for construction along the ways and means that are
still etched into the banks.
Dirbat itself is beautiful because of
surprising lakes with donkeys, camels, cows, goats, plenty of birds and many
different kinds of trees. There are water falls that bring the water down onto
the Salalah Plain and past the ancient fort of Samhuram (built 200-300 years after Lehi left here) on the cliffs
overlooking Khor Rori to the sea. However, it is a rugged beauty no photo can
truly capture, where monsoon waves have crashed into the shores of the village for
centuries, where Palm trees sway in the breeze, and narrow lakes between
well-wooded hills that stretch for miles on either side and a wealth of timber
in every direction beyond wide-spreading meadows.
Left: Khor Rhori to the bottom and Wadi Dirbat to the Top, with Salalah
off to the left beyond the photo. The area between the Quara Mountains and the
Sea is called the Salalah Plain (the Gerbeeb)
There is also the natural beauty of a
large natural dam of travertine blocking the wadi and trapping sediments and
water behind; a rare geological feature.
A veritable wall of travertine stone that blocks the Wadi Dirbat from
the Khor Rori, over which the water falls some 500 feet in a series of water
falls onto the Salalah Plain below and makes its way toward the coast 8 miles
away
The natural
dam of this tufa is to be seen in the cliffs over 500 feet, known as the Dahaq
in the main valley, and the Murgha in the side valley to the west. These
cliffs—the Murgha abyss and the Darbat abyss of Bent—represent the precipitation
of upwards of 50 million tons of travertine.
When
climbing up to the summit of the travertine cliffs to the Wadi Dirbat, one
reaches a well-timbered flat meadow, which spreads out for about a mile or so
with well-wooded hills on either side of a rapidly meandering stream. The
northern end of the wide-spreading meadow is home to wild cattle, camels and
other animals, along with birds of every type (Ether 2:2), including water-hens, herons and
ducks. Several streams spread out from the lakes to the abyss which drops over
the travertine and down onto the Plain.
Top
center is the Wadi Dirbat, which flows over the Waterfalls and down to the head
of the (red arrow) Khor Rori and then to the Arabia Sea (bottom center), a
distance of less than eight miles. Any trees cut in the Dirbat area could
easily be floated down stream to the area of Sumhuram where Nephi’s ship was
likely built long before the fort there was built
Thus, this
area within a few miles has all the aspects required for Lehi’s Bountiful, the
remarkable oasis Nephi claimed the Lord had prepared for them “that they might
not perish” (1 Nephi 17:5). It should be kept in mind that this was not an
isolated spot where everything was within arm’s distance. Keep in mind that after
the Lord told Nephi “Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I
shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters” (1 Nephi
17:8), he immediately asked, “And I said: Lord,
whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to
construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?” (1 Nephi
17:9). Obviously, Nephi was prepared to travel some distance to obtain the
items necessary, from the ore to the trees (timber) to whatever else was needed.
And it is within a short distance along
this area of Khor Rori to Wadi Dirbat that everything needed was found:
1. Several
types of trees (wooded forests)
2. Fresh
water
3. Wild
camels for beasts of burden
4. A veritable
paradise, especially during the annual Khareef season (only this 20 miles of
Omani 1400-mile coastline gets rain
5. Ore for
making tools on the mount along the east of the Wadi Dirbat
6. Food,
wild game, honey, fruit
7. Protected
shelter from the ocean to build the ship and launch it into the sea
When the
Lord told Nephi “Arise, and get thee into the mountain” (1 Nephi 17:7). Above
the beginning of Khor Rori, where the Wadi Dirbat cascades down over travertine
rock walls in beautiful feathery waterfalls to form the fresh water Rori stream
that flows to the sea, are the Qara Mountains that overlook the entire Salalah
Plain, stretching across a line parallel with the coast, housing a number of
peaks around 3,000 to 4,000 feet high
with one peak higher than 5,000 feet.
In the periplus
(p32) one reads about this Omani coast “and of the high mountains behind where
men dwell in holes,” caves cover the entire area of the mountains that are cool
and refreshing after the internal heat of the entire area.
Three
well-known explorers have described this area over several years as:
“Mountains
3,000 feet high basking above a tropical ocean, their seaward slopes velvety
with waving jungle, their roofs fragrant with yellow meadows, we look down
through the tangle of treetops to the stream, lined with trembling willows, a
wall of tropical jungle rising sheer above us on every side” (Bertram Thomas
1928). “The deserts indeed surround it, but by a climatic quirk the monsoon
rains just touch that particular corner of Arabia and the foliage was therefore
lush and semi-tropical. Along the coasts were groves of coconut palms and vivid
fields of sugar cane, plantations of wheat millet, indigo and cotton. The Wadi
Dirbat is suddenly breathtaking fertile, with fields of cotton and chili,
lavish palm trees, herds of cattle and goats grazed mildly” (James Morris
Sultan in Oman, 1957). And upon entering the Salalah Plain over the Qara
Mountains from the north after crossing the Empty Quarter, one sees how the
monsoons cover the Qara “with mist and rainfall throughout the summer and are
now dark with jungles in full leave after the monsoon, with wreathes of jasmine
and giant convolvulus and roped together with lianas. Massive tamarinds grow in
the valleys and on the downs great fig sycamore trees rise above the wind
rippled grass like oaks in an English park” (Wilford Thesiger, Arabian Sands,
1964).
One can
easily see this veritable paradise Lehi called Bountiful, which had, as Nephi
said, been prepared for their use that because of its much
fruit and also wild honey; "and all these things were prepared of the Lord that
we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which,
being interpreted, is many waters” (1 Nephi 17:5).
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