The Incense Trade Route was a network stretching over 2,000 kilometers and connecting southern Arabia to the Mediterranean. The first proven expedition to Egypt in search of frankincense dates back from 26th BCE and it is the domestication of the Arabian camel, or dromedary, that leads to the start of intensive trading in frankincense at the 8th century BCE. Oman appears on the map of the Incense Trade Route a few centuries later when the iconic trading port of Khor Rori was founded. In 2000, UNESCO and the Sultanate of Oman signed a convention placing the Land of Frankincense on the World Heritage List. The poetic name encompasses four extraordinary locations in the Dhofar Valley, a nature reserve in Southern Oman: the remains of the caravan oasis of Shisr (also known as Ubar); the affiliated ports of Khor Rori and Al-Baleed, outstanding examples of medieval fortified settlements, and Wadi Dawkah, home to the world’s largest forest of Boswellia sacra trees.

Today, Dominique Roques discusses with archaeologist Sterren Le Maguer-Gillon about how these places all bear witness to an era when the Omani region was a strategic trading crossroads on the Incense Trade Route.

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42: Kochi with Johann Kuruvilla