Shisr

1 · POSITION

Shisr, in the Dhofar desert of southern Oman, was the only permanent watering place in its region — a caravan oasis and, in UNESCO’s words, a very important station for water supply on the incense routes. It is part of the Land of Frankincense inscribed in 2000. The register holds it for the first condition of hospitality in a desert: water. [1, 2]

2 · THE SEARCH FOR UBAR

In the early 1990s an expedition with Nicholas Clapp, Ranulph Fiennes and Juris Zarins used satellite images to trace ancient camel tracks converging on the Bedouin well at Shisr. Excavation found the walls and towers of a fortress more than two thousand years old, and in 1992 the team declared itself virtually sure it had found Ubar, the lost city of Arabian legend. [2]

3 · A CARAVANSERAI, NOT A CITY

Zarins himself later concluded that Shisr was not a city called Ubar; others called Ubar a myth and Shisr a small caravanserai at most. By 2007 it was described as the easternmost of a chain of desert caravanserais that supported the incense trade. The fort’s gate had collapsed into the sinkhole round the well it guarded. [2]

4 · WATER AND CONFLICT

Because Shisr was the only permanent water, every caravan and every raider came to it, and it was the scene of many fights. A station that holds the only well holds the road. [2]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. The water station is confirmed by UNESCO: an oasis on the route that brought frankincense from the Nejd, and the outpost that gave traders water before the Rub al-Khali. The Nejd meant is the Nejd of Dhofar, the plateau behind the mountains, not central Arabia; the note now says so. The identification with Ubar is disputed. [1–3]