The Perfume of the Orient - The Incense Road (15/21)

The Perfume of the Orient - The Incense Road (15/21)

Incense appeases the gods and purifies the living and the dead. Dieter Moor follows a trail of this mythical and aromatic smoke along one of the oldest trading routes in history. Frankincense only grows in Somalia, Yemen and in the province of Dhofar in the Sultanate of Oman on the southern Arabian Peninsula. Year-round temperatures of approximately 30 degrees and the barren desert soil provide ideal conditions for the frankincense trees. Frankincense is a resin tapped from a gnarled tree, which is leafless in the dry season, called Boswellia sacra. It belongs to the torchwood family and can grow up to five metres high. The tree cannot be cultivated, which means that it is very difficult to grow it specifically. The Bedouin harvest the frankincense in exactly the same way as their forefathers did 2000 years ago. Today, most of the old caravan routes of the Incense Road have disappeared in the wind; their cities have sunk into the sands. Occasionally oases appear as if from thin air. In 1984, for example, a crossroads between three trade routes was identified on satellite images. Excavations began and found the ruins of a city which many believe to be the legendary lost city of Ubar. The city is mentioned in the "1001 Nights" and in the Qur'an. It is said there that the city was destroyed by Allah himself because of its great pride. For Lawrence of Arabia, who searched for the city in vain, Ubar was the "Atlantis of the Desert".