IMAGES: GETTY; ALAMY
OMAN
THE INFO Omani roses
5,000
The estimated number of rose bushes in Jabal Akhdar.
Seven The number of mountain
Salalah itself, we stop at one of country’s most important sites: the Wadi Dawkah forest. It’s an incredible sight, with 4,000 boswellia sacra trees rising up like wind-swept sculptures across the sprawling desert valley. Together, with the remains of the desert trading post of Shisr, the fourth- century BCE port of Sumhuram and the eighth- century port of Al Baleed, it forms the Land of Frankincense UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s estimated that frankincense was exported
from the Arabian Peninsula’s southern coastline to the shores of ancient Egypt as early as 3000 BCE, but its ancient history hasn’t made the fragrant resin any less relevant today, and it remains an integral part of everyday life in Oman. “We use it before sunset,” says Ahmed as we climb back in the car to set off again. “People think it makes your house safe from jinn (spirits), but it’s also found in medicines, hair oil and of course perfumes.” We arrive in Salalah in the thick, sultry heat of
mid-afternoon. Once the humidity begins to ease, I peel myself away from the pool at Anantara Al Baleed Resort and head for the city’s beachside Al- Hafa Souq, known locally as the Old Frankincense Market. Ahmed suggests stopping at the shop of celebrated perfume connoisseur Um Muna. Her namesake boutique opened three decades ago, and is now run with the help of her daughter, Muna, who greets us warmly at the counter. Inside, shelves stacked from floor to ceiling overflow with hundreds of bottles of fragrant oils and perfume. I ask Muna to help me choose some bukhoor.
Browsing the shelves, she selects a jar. “This one is sandalwood,” she says, bringing the pot closer to my nose so I can inhale its warm, creamy scent. For a while, I dip my nose in and out of small glass jars scented with cardamom, rose and saffron. Muna lights charcoal in a terracotta goblet called a mabkhara and places a small chip of bukhoor on the heat. As she moves the clay pot in slow, circular
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motions, swirls of saffron-laced smoke fill the air. My attention turns to a large bowl of whitish-
green pebbles. “That’s Hojari frankincense, it’s the best,” says Muna. “Try it,” she insists, gesturing for me to put it in my mouth. I reluctantly start to chew on the hard resin, which quickly becomes the texture of chewing gum, but with a refreshing pine-like flavour. Muna then places a piece of golden Najdi
frankincense in the mabkhara and the sweet scent of the saffron is replaced with something smokier, something holy. It’s a rich, resinous, distinctive aroma that’s both woody and citrusy, with a touch of spice, and one that seems wholly synonymous with this country. It’s this scent that I imagine would have filled
the air 2,000 years ago in the ancient port city of Sumhuram, my final stop on this perfume trail that’s taken me from Oman’s mountains to the shores of the Arabian Sea. Perched high above the water, the Sumhuram UNESCO World Heritage Site is 25 miles east of Salalah and was once the heart of Oman’s frankincense trade. As I gaze down from its fortified walls, I see the remains of the buildings where frankincense was once stored before being shipped across these very waves. The world may have changed beyond recognition since then, but Oman’s prized golden resin remains just as precious.
HOW TO DO IT: Oman Air offers daily direct flights from Heathrow to Muscat.
omanair.com Oman’s rose season runs from the end of March to the end of April. Rooms at Alila Jabal Akhdar start at 156 OMR (£300) per night, B&B. Old Muscat Tourism’s two-day Explore Ad Dakhiliyah Highlights guided tour costs from 107 OMR (£205) per person. Rooms at Anantara Al Baleed Resort start at £252 per night, B&B. Full-day tours with Salalah Glory Tours start at £225 per person.
alilahotels.com
oldmuscattourism.com
anantara.com
glorytourssalalah.com
villages Jabel Akhdar’s rose crop is concentrated in: Al-Aqar, Al-Ain, Al-Shariga, Saiq, Al-Qasha, Hail Al-Yemen and Hail Al-Masbet.
£425
The cost of 12ml of Omani perfume house Amouage’s
Rose Aqor, a heady perfume oil infused with rose, frankincense and sandalwood, named after Jabal Akhdar’s rose-growing village of Al-Aqar.
300
The approximate number of roses in one kilogramme.
5.30am
The time that rose farmers start picking flowers each morning in Jabal Akhdar — when the concentration of essential oils is at its highest.
150
The number of individual roses needed to produce a litre of rosewater.
500 CE The period Oman’s aflaj
irrigation systems are thought to date from. These ancient
water channels bring life to the rose farms of Jabal Akhdar.
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