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omanreference.com -> Salalah -> City History
City History
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Salalah is a city of antiquity, boasting both the ruins of the fortified town Sumharam, an important port from 100 BC – AD 400, and the alleged resting place of Job (Arabic "Ayoub") in nearby Jabal Gadu. It is also the alleged resting place of Nabi Imran, father of the Virgin Mary. Modern Oman is also represented by the Port of Salalah, located approximately 15 km to the southwest of the city. The strategic location of this port has made it one of the major entry points to India, the Middle East, and Africa.
The mountains of Jibal Dhofar, which rise to 1,000m, encircle the Salalah plain and stretch westwards into Yemen. Sailors have made landfall on this coast for thousands of years en route from Africa, the Red Sea, India and beyond. The rugged terrain made communications very difficult and the population remains dominated by isolated communities of tribesmen. Following the resolution of the Dhofar rebellion in the early 1970s, a black-top road was built to the Yemen border. It is a highly impressive feat of civil engineering with switchbacks descending to a wadi bottom and up the other side of the valley a few kilometres west of Mughsail.
A branch of the Royal Family of Oman ruled Zanzibar, an island off the coast of East Africa, until 1964. The peoples have freely intermingled and African influences are particularly apparent in Dhofar, Oman's southern region, of which Salalah is the chief town. The ruins of a port, Samhuram, known to have been in its hey day over 2,000 years ago lie on a promontory between two khawrs, or sea creeks, some 30 km east of Salalah. Locally and popularly known as the Queen of Sheba's Palace, Samhuram was important for the trade in frankincense.
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