To view the slide show of Ubar just click on this picture and the file will begin to download.  The file size is   1,029,228 bytes and will take approximately 4 minute to download.  (This is  NOT a satellite image but the actual site of the excavation of a part of the region believed to be Ubar city located in Shisr, Oman.) 

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About this location:  Shisr is believed to be part of the site of the Lost City of Ubar, the Atlantis of the Sands.  It is about 85 kilometers north-east from Thumrayt mostly by graded road.

You have to drive to Shisr and just inside the town to the right you will find the entrance gates and a welcome sign and coffee shop for the Lost City.  The coffee shop is largely deserted during the off season but makes for a nice picnic spot for your road trip.  During tour season you can well imagine the fun from what you see sitting about!

Opposite the coffee shop is a wood shed with a flapping door and roof.  Spray painted on the side in large yellow letters is "The Lost City of Ubar".  Seemingly a memory left behind from the archaeological group who handled the excavation.  Inside this wood "shed" is a wonderful museum created by the local "curator" Bakheet.  

Bakheet is a Bedouin man living a Bedouin's life--until the satellite find of Ubar.  Shisr is located just next to the Empty Quarter and upon arrival seems to be a ghost town of sorts but you will soon realize it is anything but.  

In speaking to Bakheet you begin to realize that the excavation was quite a surprise to the town's people who had lived there all these centuries, seemingly unaware of what was beneath the very ground they walked! In the early 90's a group of Americans take their town by storm and unearth a lost city, much to the delight of the archaeologists and much to the surprise of the inhabitants of the town of Shisr.

Once a bedouin now a curator of a museum of his own doings, Bakheet is a very nice gentleman happy to share what he learned from the archaeologists who spent a great deal of time in his town.  Hanging on his museum walls you will find occasional photographs of the group of students and archaeologists, among them is a younger  Bakheet.  Obviously "adopted" by the excavation team, Bakheet not only learned to speak English but learned the jargon of an archaeologist and learned a bit about what it takes to unearth such a find.  

In "touring" the museum we spoke to Bakheet who tells a wonderful story of the days of the excavation and has quite a collection of articles hanging on his museum walls which tell the story of the excitement surrounding Ubar and the recent find.  On the tables which surround us are a great many of the artifacts which were unearthed though the real prizes are elsewhere.  However, unlike an official museum, the tour through Bakheet's museum is more enjoyable because this Bedouin curator will actually let you touch and hold items which date back thousands and thousands of years.  

Bakheet tells us that the plan is for a proper museum to be built which will house many of the archaeological finds.  The museum will be located in Shisr/Ubar but until now has not developed.

Ubar is believed to have been the Omanum Emporiam, Irem That Al Emad, Wabar, Ubar or the mythical lost city in "Arabian Nights"  Omanum Emporiam was first mentioned in about 200 AD by Arabian geographers when it was described as a major market town in the "Empty Quarter" and at the crossroads for the frankincense trade.  Irem That Al Emad mentioned in the Holy Quran 400 years later was a city of doom because of its sinful ways.  It was believed to have been built by King Shaddad bin Ad to recreate his idea of paradise, where he gathered gold, silver, pearls, amber and other precious things to make a city of beauty.  

The city was left crumbled and buried beneath the sands of the desert when God sent a great wind to destroy the corruption of wealth and delights of the flesh of the people of Ad.

Bakheet tells us that when the city crumbled it was the result of something like an earthquake and that the city fell into a kind of hole in the ground just behind a large hill, atop of which remains one of the ruins.  The walk down the hill to the hole is a bit of a slope and proper shoes are recommended.  As it would turn out, the Arabic word  Shisr is the word used for such a hole.  Hence, the town of Shisr.

Yaqut Al Hamawi, the famous Arab geographer, described Wabar as "the land which belonged to Ad in eastern parts of Yemen and which is today an untrodden waste owing to the drying up of the desert."

The discovery of the city at Shisr came as a result of scientific research and sheer accident.  In the early 1990's archaeologists launched a major expedition to find the lost city. They used satellite pictures taken over the desert, revealing old caravan routes. A group of Bedouins led the archaeologists to the area at Shisr, which they thought had ruins.  A settlement was discovered beneath the sands, an ancient well which supplied the settlement with water.  There were remains of walls, towers and gates, which indicate an extensive town.  Pottery, glass vessels and incense burners, dating back to the era between 1000 BC and the Islamic era 900-1400 AD, were also found.

Archaeologists believe Ubar was the principal centre of the north bound overland trade route to the north of the Arabian peninsula and to the Sumerian civilisation in the south of ancient Iraq.  Trade and frankincense and Arabian horses flourished from Shisr.  Queen Sheba is believed to have traveled to the region for supplies of frankincense and stories narrate the tales of her offerings of frankincense to King Solomon.

The slideshow will show you around what remains of Ubar at the Shisr area.  We believe the excavation of this location is not yet finished though the work has stopped.  Unfortunately we have no further explanations of what you are about to see of these ancient remains but based upon what you have just read, suffice it to say, it is a just a part of the great area of Ubar.

The gentleman shown in this collection is Bakheet.  Our thanks to Bakheet for his involvement in the excavation, for hosting our visit and for sharing the stories of Ubar, both then and now. 

To see read an interview about Ubar with an archaeologist visit this link 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ubar/zarins/index.html  For more information about this archaeological find, just type the word Ubar in your address line of your browser bar and you will get a list of more links to Ubar than you know what to do with!  However, given the results of our extensive searches, no other online site has pictures of Ubar like those here at The Souk of Oman.