03Cities and regions
Dhofar
Salalah and the Land of Frankincense
Salalah is the capital and largest city of Dhofar and the third city of Oman, with about 332,000 inhabitants. Its climate is unlike the rest of the country: from June to September the monsoon, known here as the khareef, rolls in mist and drizzle off the Arabian Sea, the mountains turn green, and waterfalls run at Wadi Darbat, Ain Athum, Ain Tubrook and Ain Khor. Visitors from Oman and abroad crowd in for the season and for the annual Khareef festival, and the city itself is full of coconut and banana gardens. Salalah is also frankincense country. At Al-Baleed lie the ruins of the old city of Zafar, a frankincense port visited by Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, now home to the Museum of the Land of Frankincense. Near Taqah, at the mouth of Wadi Darbat, Khor Rori holds the ruins of Sumhuram, a fortified town founded in the 3rd century BC. Frankincense trees grow in the hills north of the city, and all of these sites have been on the World Heritage List since 2000. If you come during the khareef, bring a light jacket: July and August are thick with fog.
- about 332,000
- City population
- 2000
- Land of Frankincense on the World Heritage List
- 3rd century BC
- Sumhuram founded