The way theorists have written
about Sumhuram, an ancient city on the inlet of Khor Rori to the east of
Salalah, one might think it was a mysterious city of antiquity. Perhaps because
the Queen of Sheba is said to have had a palace there, or that it was the
beginning of the famed Frankincense Trail that swept across Arabia, or perhaps
it was because of the Rub’ al Khali desert. Whatever, the reason, the facts do not
support any mystery.
Aerial view of the Salalah Plain; Bottom: Looking out to sea
across the Khor Rori inlet from the ancient ruins of Sumhuram. The entrance to
the inlet is now covered by a sand bar, but anciently ships from all over
sailed into the inlet from the Sea of Arabia beginning around the 1st
century B.C.
Khor Rori lies on the eastern
end of the bowl-shaped plain of Salalah, and along the eastern shore of the
inlet of Khor Rori sits the ancient ruins of Sumhuram, perhaps one of the most
important pre-Islamic settlements in the entire Dhofar region since it sits on
the end (or beginning) of the Frankincense production region.
The first phase of the
settlement, which was established behind a monumental gate to the city where
great quantities of iron and bronze objects have been discovered, first by
James Theodore Bent in the late 19th century A.D., which has later
been excavated by the American Foundation for the Study of Man in the early
1950s and by the Italian Mission to Oman since 1994. First believed to have been
established as early as the late 4th century B.C. and continued on
through the 4th century A.D., more modern dating has placed the
beginning closer to the end of the 3rd century B.C., and continuing
only through the 1st century A.D.
It is believed that Khor Rori is
the ancient frankincense exporting port of Moscha Limen mentioned in this
region in the 1st century maritime guide Periplus Maris Erythraei. It is believed to have been founded as an
outpost for the kingdom of Hadramawt in modern Yemen once the Nabataeans
started exporting frankincense from the Hymraite ports.
The port of Sumhuram (Smhrm - "His Name is Great")
was founded on royal initiative and settled by Hadrami emigrants at the end of
the 1st century B.C. Rock inscriptions (left) record that it was established by
LL'ad Yalut to control the trade in Dhofar incense. It is identified as the
Moscha of classical geographical texts, where Indian seamen who had brought
cotton cloth, corn, and oil to exchange for incense, overwintered, waiting for
the favorable monsoon winds to take them home.
The inlet itself is a
substantial port that has seen Greek, Roman, Indian, and other early traders
dating back to the 1st century
Though contrary to
archaeological findings of the site, some theorists claim that
Khor Rori and Sumhuran were occupied during the time Lehi reached his
Bountiful, thus making a stronger case for a different site a few miles to the
west of Salalah; however everything
yet uncovered in the Sumhuran/KhorRori area suggests it was not actually
settled or occupied until 400 B.C. at the very earliest, and not officially as
an actual settlement until the 1st century B.C., as noted by the
ancient Greek seafarer’s manual, Periplus
of the Erythrean [Red] Sea, (naming the Khor Rori inlet at Salalah as
Moscha) and describing navigation and trading opportunities in the area for
mariners who might be sailing in that area—obviously, if it had been occupied
for some 600 years or more by then, there would have been no need for his
detailed instructions as to how to reach this inlet and where it was exactly
located.
Actually, and as typically the case, there is no mystery
when Khor Rori was first established. The problem lies in this date not
matching the dates of other sites favored by some theorists, such as Khor
Karfot. However, despite writing meant to discredit Khor Rori, there are trees
in the area of Wadi Dirbat just above Khor Rori, the greenery and “bountiful”
conditions Nephi writes about, including natural beehives in caves that have
been harvested there for millennia, and the other conditions we have written
about in these pages over the past.
In addition, there are two cliffs at the inlet to Khor Rori
in the photo below (red arrows) where, despite some theorist’s claim to there
being no such place, would have been perfect locations to throw Nephi into the
sea. After all, any old mountain would not do, it had to be a cliff facing that
dropped directly into the sea for the body to reach, as Nephi recorded it, “when
I had spoken these words, they were angry with me, and were desirous to throw
me into the depths of the sea” (1
Nephi 17:48, emphasis mine).
Top: (Yellow Arrow) The Khor Rori inlet where fresh water flows down
from the Wadi Dirbat, past the (White Arrow) ancient ruins of Sumhuran and to
the Sea of Arabia (foreground). Red Arrows: Two 90 to100-feet high cliffs on either
side of the inlet from which Laman and Lemuel could have thrown Nephi into the
sea; Bottom: The ancient ruins of Sumhuran. The two cliffs can be seen in the
background
The port of Khor Rori and the
city of Sumhuram were the hub of the trading settlement on this coast during
the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., during the height of Rome’s far flung shipping
empire that brought those of the Mediterranean into the Sea of Arabia in search
for frankincense and other trade goods, creating short-lived wealth and
fast-growing cities and ports that did not last long.
The powerful and wealthy city of Sumhuram was secure for three
centuries behind its huge walls as it overlooked the port of Khor Rori, which
drew thousands of traders from the region in search of goods not found in their
own lands
Sumhuram’s close links with the
powerful Shabwa state made it a very rich town. At this time it was a small,
strongly fortified city covering about an acre. However, the process of
disintegration began in the first half of the 3rd century A.D., a process that
was completed by the end of the century, when the site was reclaimed by the sea
and by natural vegetation.
While
Shisr was already playing a major role in the Iron Age as an important outpost
providing traders with water before they entered the desert of the Rub
al-Khali, the foundation of the fortified port of Khor Rori/Sumhuram by LL'ad
Yalut, king of the Hadhramawt, took place at the end of the 1st century B.C. in
the context of growing sea trade between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
After
the decline of Khor Rori during the first half of the 3rd century A.D., the
site of al-Balid can be considered to be that of the port which took over the
main role in sea trade up to the Late Islamic period In the region of Dhofar
the natural setting of Wadi Andoor, Wadi Hogar, and Wadi Dawkah represents the
most significant area where frankincense trees grow.
There
is nothing mysterious about this area and the ruins found there. For a short
time, about 300 years at most, Sumhuram played an important role in the
international trade of the time; however, as different states rose and fell,
the trade routes changed and where one city had been wealthy and powerful, it
lost its maritime appeal and fell into oblivion. This, then affected the
interior sites, like Shisir to the north of Khor Rori, not rediscovered until
the 19th century.
Top: Khor Rori today, a quiet,
undisturbed, and peaceful inlet when Lehi arrived and where camels roam today
and few people visit; Bottom: (Red Arrow) Khor Rori as the hub of ancient
travel and trade from Rome (upper left) to India (lower right) and Africa
(lower left)—it is easy to see why this port was the center of focus during the
1st Century B.C. and onward until Rome and other such empires lost
their power and disappeared into history
Khor
Rori is a peaceful small inlet today, showing no signs of its once robust and
busy connections with the world around it. The trees above Khor Rori where
Nephi found his wood, the ore at the base of the mountains to the east from
which he made his tools, the ways upon which his ship had been built and then
slid into the inlet, are all gone now—only ruins remain. Were it not for the
Book of Mormon recording this brief moment in history, we would know little if
anything about the important role this area played in providing an area from
which Lehi set sail for his Land of Promise.
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Very well stated. Kharfot is not the site. Just try to ride a camel into that forsaken defile, which is an impossible feat. The goat herders shelter and corral is definitely not Solomon's Temple and pales in comparison with the temple cult at Khor Rori complete with washing rooms and an altar. I have followed the path from the Wadi Darbat down to Kohr Rori and large timber felled in the Wadi can easily be floated. The transport of timber has never been addressed by those who support Kharfot nor the fact that Kharfot is such a difficult place to access that no successive settlers ever desired it. If Lehi's Bountiful was as spectacular as the later Book of Mormon people remembered it to be when they used the name, then Kharfot doesn't meet that criteria. Kohr Rori is a spectacular location not easily forgotten.
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