1 · POSITION
Al-Baleed, at Salalah, holds the ruins of medieval Zafar, the city that gave Dhofar its name and served as an important frankincense port after the decline of Khor Rori. UNESCO dates the harbour from the eighth to the sixteenth century and includes it in the Land of Frankincense. The register holds it as Oman’s medieval gate to the ocean trade. [1, 2]
2 · TRAVELLERS’ CITY
Zafar was visited by many famous travellers — Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Ibn al-Mujawir and the Chinese admiral Zheng He among them. A port that the ocean’s great travellers called at was a port that received them. [2]
3 · THE PARK
Its ruins, excavated since 1952, now form an archaeological park, and the Museum of the Frankincense Land stands within it. [2]
4 · BETWEEN TWO SEAS
The register reads Al-Baleed as Oman’s link to the East African and Chinese chapters it keeps — Stone Town, Quanzhou, Muziris — each filed under its own code. [1]
5 · ⚑ CANDOUR
⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. Chinese finds at al-Baleed are confirmed: Chinese ceramics are among the imports published by Pavan and Visconti in 2020. The city’s dates are given as eighth to sixteenth century by UNESCO and sixth to seventeenth by another source. [1–3]
Sources & Further Reading
Sources checked 22 October 2026.