In all reality, the difference between
Khor Rori and Khor Kharfot as an embarkation point for Nephi’s ship is rather
minute in regard to one another. That is, the distance between them and their
relationship to one another, would have had no bearing on the currents that
took a ship from either location into the Sea of Arabia and then on to the
Indian Ocean. While there are important differences, to be sure, the point is,
neither location alters the end result in any way of Nephi’s ship embarking on
the currents and with the winds that took them south and eventually southeast
and finally east down and into the Southern Ocean and to their landing location
in the Western Hemisphere.
Were it not for questions asked of us
from time to time regarding our opinion of these two areas, we probably would
not address the question at all. However, there are, as stated above,
differences, and if at some point those differences become an issue, it might
be well to understand them and recognize that one site is definitely more
aligned to the actual event than the other.
So let’s take a look at an important
issue separating the two locations.
Looking down on Khor Kharfot, the (Yellow Arrow) green wadi is really
not a harbour, but merely a khor, an inlet
1) Khor
Kharfot has no protected harbor: In 1993 specialists from BYU visited Khor
Kharfot and considered it to have been a sheltered sea inlet until it was
closed off in the last few hundred years. While the opening of Khor Kharfot is
wide and filled with shallow water, the wadi narrows rapidly and is
considerably narrower than Khor Rori and contains many large rocks. It has been
claimed that Khor Kharfot could have been a harbor anciently. This conjecture
is based on the assumption that inland from the sandbar the wadi is
significantly below sea level; Theorists tell us that 1 mile inland Wadi Sayq
is “up to 50 feet below sea level.”
While it can be debated it is a
shallow inlet, it could also be debated it was ever a harbor capable of taking
large ships and protecting them from the monsoon waves—there is simply no
record of this connected with the area; on the other hand, Roman and Arabic records
show that Khor Rori was indeed used as a protected harbor for several hundred
years between 300 or 200 B.C. onward until around 300 to 500 A.D.
We would suggest that rather than
being up to 50 feet below sea level up to a mile inland, the wadi floor starts
to rise almost immediately as one moves inland.
2) Gravity.
A freshwater spring is located about a quarter of a mile up the Wadi. Water
from this spring will obviously flow down hill and collect at the lowest point
in the wadi. If the Wadi were below sea level to more than 1 mile inland the
water would flow inland to the deepest area and pool there, but instead, the
water flows towards the sea and collects there, showing that the area behind
the sand bar must be the lowest point in the Wadi. The water here is 6-8 feet
deep and, according to Google Earth, the
Wadi floor is about 11 feet above sea level here; so the bottom of the spring
water is probably still above sea level.
3) Observation.
The photograph below shows the view towards the sea from about ½ mile inland. The
sea in the background can plainly be seen to be below the height of the Wadi
floor in the foreground.
Khor Kharfot: Blue Arrow: Sea Level of harbor; Yellow Arrow: Wadi
Level rising upward from the shore inland for more than ¾ of a mile
It should also be suggested that Khor
Kharfot is too narrow to have ever been a harbor for a large ship. Quite
frankly, anyone standing on the Wadi floor at either of these points can see
that they are looking down to the sea from a considerable altitude and would be
amazed, of the claim that they are standing below sea level by such a huge
amount.
4) Breakwater.
Perhaps most importantly, is the absence of some type of breakwater
arrangement, which the promontories at Khor Rori provide (see last post).
Without some way to break the water moving in and out between the Sea and the
inlet, breaching the ocean would have been quite difficult for Nephi’s
inexperienced crew, including the possibility of broaching into the swell and
driven backward into the inlet, or even capsizing.
The inlet of Khor Khrafot has no breakwater arrangement as does that of
Khor Rori. The Yellow Arrows shows that the sides of the inlet simply run out
into the sea, the White Arrow shows the flow of the current (before the
entrance was sealed with sand washing down into the sea
Based on studies of Wadi Sayq at Khor
Kharfot, the general inclination of the slope beyond the khor’s entrance is not
deepening, but rising, showing that Ashton’s claim is inaccurate, and based on
Goodle Earth Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) Level, “there are no
significant pockets (if any at all) showing the wadi thread being below sea
level.”
Thus, we can say that Khor Kharfot’s wadi floor
does not lie below sea level for more than a one-mile distance inland from the
shore, and while the wadi may have provided shelter for a small boat, it could
not have been a harbor for a large ship, and this probably explains why Jana
Owen of UCLA, who made a study in 1995 of the ancient ports of Dhofar as part
of the ‘Transarabia Expedition,’ did
not include Khor Kharfot.
Other issues:
Timbered land runs along the Wadi Dirbat above Khor Rori with various
species and types
5) No
available long straight hardwoods: Nephi built his ship in a fertile area
(much fruit) and where there was ample wood for constructing a sailing ship.
Khor Kharfot lacks both of these attributes.
Dr. Phillips’ notes that the only cultivated fruit orchards today are at
Salalah (65 miles east of Khor Kharfot); however, large fruit plantations are
found only 2 miles from Khor Rori at Taqah,
and this was likely so in the past as this is the only place where the
soil is fertile enough.
While it is claimed that timber
appropriate for building a conventional, ocean-going ship does not grow
anywhere along the Omani coast and probably did not in the past, this is not
true. See the last posts and the numerous photos of timbered land along the
Wadi Dirbat above Khor Rori.
Of course, in not knowing what it was
about Nephi’s ship that made it “not built after the manner of men,” or that
the “timbers were not worked after the manner of men,” it cannot even be
suggested what type of wood Nephi’s ship was built of and, therefore, what type
of wood needed to be found along the Omani coast.
6) No Fabric
for Sails:
Being roughly 85 miles west of the port at Khor Rori, and isolated by
mountains, it is hard to image how Nephi could have had access at Khor Kharfot
to cloth fabric for making the sails for his ship. To date no documented
evidence has been found showing that fabric was available in antiquity at Khor
Kharfot. Nor, again, do we know what type of fabric was needed for Nephi to
build sails. Throughout history, sails have been made of various fabric, and
certainly one would think his sails would have been from very heavy or strong
fabric to withstand the tremendous winds and wind action in the middle of the
ocean. The fact that around 200 B.C. Khor Rori became a ship building center,
one might suspect that the materials needed were found there.
7) No
iron ore: Geologists have surveyed southern Oman and cities where iron ore
deposits are to be found on the Mirbat plain (including the deposits discovered
6 miles east of Khor Rori), and a small wadi between Raykut just east of
Mughsayl (40 miles to the east). Again, this essential element for Bountiful is
absent at Khor Kharfot.
8) No
Seamenship Skills. Without a protected harbor it is little wonder that no
evidence exists at Khor Kharfot that the necessary intellectual resources Nephi
would have needed to build a ship and sail it to the promised land ever existed
there.
9) No
safe access to the sea. A huge unsupported assumption is often made about
Khor Kharfot—that it was open to the sea in Nephi’s time. It is presently
closed by a sandbar, and we are not aware of any evidence that it was open to
the sea in the 6th century B.C. Khor Rori also has a sandbar presently blocking the entrance, but we do know that in the past this sandbar did not exist since the Romans and others used Khor Rori as a harbor and had entrance for large ships into it through this present sandbar.
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This was very helpful information and although Khor Kharfot could have been Bountiful, it is logically that Nephi was guided to build his ship in Khor Rori where he could get the assistance and expertise necessary to construct a ship of this size. I would conclude that over the time span that the ship was built the Lehites and the Zoramites initially dwelling in Khor Kharfot moved to be closer to the harbor where they ultimately sailed toward the promised land.
ReplyDeleteNo evidence that it was open to the sea in the 6th Century B.C. Like a photo perhaps, or a google satellite photo? Really.
ReplyDeleteIt is my understanding that sea levels anciently were lower than today. See, for example, under-sea ruins off the coast of Egypt and Central America. Assuming that is true, what difference might this have made in the Khor Rori/Khor Kharfot discussion?
ReplyDeleteI was just wondering if anyone has seen the movie "Lehi's Travels in Arabia?
ReplyDeleteIf not... take a gander and then let me know what you think.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1B5eSNfZz98bUDy6osHJhQ535sUDxLNAe
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDismiss all arguments based on "No" or "None." Any argument from ignorance fails immediately, because it presumes omniscience.
ReplyDeleteJust one example: "7. No iron ore there."
Whoops! There is indeed iron ore at Khor Kharfot. See the photo at Fig. 5C, page 20: Iftikhar A. Abbasi: "Geological Assessment of the Khor Kharfot Sediments, Western Dhofar Region, Sultanate of Oman, SQU Journal of Science, 2016, 21(1), 16-25
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e2b1/7686945d26b9e365e70dc91a64ab719c4a41.pdf
Most astonishing to me, however, is "8: No seamanship skills."
Score one for Laman and Lemuel!
"Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters." (1 Nephi 17:17)
But let's completely dismiss Nephi's testimony!
"I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men.
And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things." (1 Nephi 18:2-3)