UBAR

Atlantis Of The Sands

Overview

Somewhere in the southern deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, legend tells of a lost city which held great treasures until the wicked people who occupied it attracted the wrath of God who destroyed it. This of course is a city which is known by many names Wabar, Iram of the pillars, and Ubar – the Atlantis of the sands coined by T.E. Lawrence.

Since 1930 when Bertram Thomas, and English diplomat and explorer had first heard about the lost city from his Bedouin escorts while crossing the southern edge of the Rub’ al Khali the legend of the Atlantis of the sands has been a fascination for explorers.

T. E. Lawrence. British archaeologist, military officer, and diplomat.

In 1992 a team of archaeologists and explorers using ancient maps and surveys using satellite imagery announced that they were virtually sure that they had discovered Ubar. However, this is just one claim of many by different archaeological teams over recent years who have claimed to have found the fabled site of this lost city.

The discoveries and proposed “true” location of the Atlantis of the sands is widely argued and debated with the Saudi Arabian press showing a great level of scepticism for most of the claims that have been made.

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The Legend

Seven Pillars of Wisdom rock formation in Wadi Rum, Jordan.

Iram of the Pillars is first was found in the Ebla tablets, a collection of as many as 1,800 complete clay tablets, 4,700 fragments, and many thousands of minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria, dated from c. 2500 BCE to c. 2250BCE. Iram is also mentioned in the Quran in connection with ‘imad (pillars):Surah al-Fajr (6-14)

Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with ‘Aad –
[With] Iram – who had loft pillars,
The likes of whom had never been created in the lands
and [with] Thamud, who carved out the rocks in the valley?
And [with] Pharaoh, owner of the pyramids? –
[All of] whom oppressed with the lands
and increased therein the corruption.
So your Lord poured upon them a scourge of punishment.
Indeed, your Lord is in observation.

What exactly this is in reference to is highly debated, the most famous theory by far is that it is a lost city of vast wealth. Others theorize it to be only a geographical area, quite possibly the biblical region of Aram, or that Iram was a tribe known as ʿĀd and that the pillars are in fact reference to the tent poles.

According to the ICOMOS Advisory Body Evaluation from UNESCO about Wadi-Rum (Jordan) “The identification of Wadi Rum with Iram and the tribe of ʿĀd, mentioned in the Quran, has been proposed by scholars who have translated Thamudic and Nabataean inscriptions referring to both the place Iram and the tribes of ʿĀd and Thamud by name.

Atlantis of the Sands; the Search For the Lost City of Ubar by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

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The Seach Begins

Despite it’s early mentions Iram of the Pillars only really reaches it’s legendary status as a lost city in the early 1900’s when English diplomat and explorer Bertram Thomas in his attempt to be the first European to cross the great sands approached the southern edge of The Empty Quarter (Rub’ al Khali) where he was told by his Bedouin escorts that there was once a city since lost to the sands whose people were so wicked that they attracted the wrath of god who destroyed the city.

Fascinated by this story Bertram Thomas wrote about it and even marked the location of the track which would lead to the lost city on the map which he intended to return to and follow but was never able to.

Bertram Sidney Thomas, English diplomat and explorer and first documented Westerner to cross the Rub’ al Khali.

Hand drawn map by Bertram Thomas showing the different tribal areas of the Al Sharqiyin, Al Qawasim and Al Shihuh.

However, Bertram Thomas later revealed that the story of the lost city was related to a story which had been told by T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) who coined the term Atlantis of the Sands for the lost city of Ubar. Before his untimely death T. E. Lawrence was so convinced by the possibility of the remains of the ancient Arab civilization that he had planned to return to the area and mount an expedition in search of the lost city of “the Atlantis of the Sands”.

Since the 1930’s the idea of a lost city hidden beneath the sands of Arabia has become a fascination for many explorers and treasure hunters with many written accounts of their attempts to locate this the source of this legend with some even making bold claims with no doubts that what they have found is ‘the’ location.

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The Claims

In the spring of 1946 the British military officer, explorer, and writer Wilfred Thesiger visited Shisr where he found a well which he presumed was the only permanent watering place in the area. Having found what could be early islamic pottery shards and this well likely being a necessary watering place for the Bedouin raiders where many fierce encounters had occurred in the past.

Thesiger wrote that it was here “where the ruins of a crude stone fort on a rocky eminence marks the position of this famous well.”

portrait of Wilfred Thesiger by Anthony Devas, 1944.

‘Camel Train in the Desert’ by Charles Théodore Frère, 1855.

This same structure was again in 1948 discovered by an associate of the Iraq Petroleum Company who was carrying out a camel-borne survey of Dhofar province. When they first approached the well they thought it was a large white cliff in the distance but as they got closer to the cliff they could see that it was actually a ruined fort that was built above a large quarry-like cave hidden by a large sand dune at it’s entrance.

Since then many explorers have claimed to have found the remnants of the lost city but it wasn’t until the 1980’s that a claim for the location of the fabled lost city of Ubar was made “official”.

Borrego Springs, California based writer, film-maker, and amateur archaeologist Nicholas Clapp after recruiting the help of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to obtain satellite images of the Dhofar region where Clapp believed was the location of Ubar after seeing a location on a map from Ptolemty depicting a place named “Omanum Emporium”.

Following the ancient camel tracks found in the imaging sent by NASA, Clapp was able to investigate a number of possible sites on the ground, one of which was the site at Shisr which Thesiger had visited 7 years earlier. As the ruins at the Shisr site had been determined to be no older than a few hundred years, Clapp’s team speculated that this fort was in fact built on top of much older ruins and as such began excavation of the site unearthing the wall and towers of a fort dating back more than 2,000 years.

The Road to Ubar – Finding the Atlantis of the sands by Nicholas Clapp.

The Shisr located in Souther Oman (Dhofar).

Clapp described that the fort and well had been built on a large limestone table that lay beneath the main gate which had collapsed into a massive sinkhole. As such he believed this evidence was a “convincing match” for the legendary lost city of Ubar.

Nicholas Clapp’s excavation site is now recognized as the location of the fabled lost city of Ubar or Iram of the pillars, the legendary “Atlantis of the Sands”.

Or is it?

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Conclusion

Following Nicholas Clapp’s discovery there were those including the Saudi Arabian press that were less convinced in his claim that his site was in fact Ubar. The Assistant Under-Secretary of Archaeological Affairs, Dr. Abdullah al Masri stated that many similar sites to Clapp’s had been found in Saudi Arabia over the last 15 years with one site discovered in 1975 where they uncovered more than one city on the edge of the Empty Quarter particularly around the Jabreen Oasis. He also notes that the name of the oasis in Eastern Saudi Arabia is called Obar which is very similar to Ubar.

The academic opinion of Clapp’s findings has become increasingly skeptical over recent years. Fuel to this fire of speculation comes from the book Clapp wrote about Ubar titled The Road to Ubar in which Clapp writes a chapter about the king of Ubar which can’t be backed up and raises concerns about the legitimacy or accuracy of Clapp’s claims.

A fort located near the Shisr ruins believed to be Ubar in the Dhofar region.

SeaWiFS collected this view of Arabia and of dust blowing across the Persian Gulf. Digitally altered by Shaibalahmar to show the sites.

Nicholas Clapp’s initial research and the backbone of his claims came from the Ptolemy map which showed an area called “Omanum Emporium” which he believed was Ubar. However, in 2007 an article entitled “Oman and the Emirates in Ptolemy’s Map” contained a comment from Nigel Groom about the wild distortions on Ptolemy’s map of Arabia. In addition to this the word “Emporium” in Greek from Ptolemy’s time would have a meaning closer to a place where the wholesale trade of commodities carried by sea, and sometimes used for inland cities where taxes would have been collected and trade conducted.

Furthermore, Groom suggested that the Hormanus River north-east of Omanus Emporium was in fact the Wadi Halfrain which rises some 20 kilometers north east of Izki in modern-day central Oman and thus Omanum Emporium was more likely to have been here not Clapp’s Shisr site.

Professor Barri Jones wote in a 1992 article about the Shisr excavations that “the archaeological integrity of the site should not be allowed to be affected by possible disputes regarding it’s name.”

The question therefore remains, did Iram of the Pillars exist and if it did, are the legends of it’s vast wealth accumulated from being a key trading point in the Empty Quarter true, could the treasures of the Atlantis of the Sands still be hiding out in the Arabian deserts?

Photo of Minaret in Nizwa, Oman by Andries Oudshoorn.

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ADAM L C

Director of Areas Grey

Adam is an avid treasure hunter, seeker of adventure and the creator of Areas Grey. After travelling for almost half his life and cataloguing over 100 treasure legends along the way. He decided this was simply far too much treasure for one person to chase! As a result he created Areas Grey so he could share his stories, connect with other treasure hunters and put a little more adventure in the lives of the treasure hunting community.

Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.

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