A day-and-a-half at sea brought us to Salalah, the second largest town in the Sultanate of Oman and the birthplace of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. The Sultan traditionally lived in Salalah but Qaboos prefers to reside in Muscat but has a palace in Salalah - a lovely name that just rolls of the tongue.
Salalah is a city of antiquity with ruins of a palace reputed to have belonged to the Queen of Sheba and the resting place of the prophet Job. It is also the alleged resting place of Nabi Imran, the father of the Virgin Mary.
Today Salalah boasts a modern port situated some 15 kilometres southwest of the city. Its strategic location (See previous posting for map of Oman) has made it one of the major ports en route to or from India, the Middle East and Africa and a refuelling point for Black Watch today.
My half-day tour this morning was entitled ‘Serene Salalah’ and our first stop was at the Grand Mosque, that proved to be every bit as beautiful as the one I had seen in Bahrain but his time with a carpet made in Iran. The photo is of the atrium.
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