Khor Rori Expedition September 2006

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Khor Rori Expedition September 2006

• A return to Nephis Harbor with George Potter
  Friends

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DAY ONE Locating Flint Quarry Near Khor Rori

• Advanced Team A
• (Jim Anderson, Hugh Linda Smith and Doug
  Esplin) locates Neolithic Flint Quarry GPS Site
  to 4.5 Miles West of Khor Rori (Nephis Harbor)
  
• Team B Visits Archaeological Park and sets up
  visit with Ali Al-Shahri.

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DAY TWO Entire Team Surveys Flint Quarry
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Jim Anderson with Flint Node
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Rough seas near quarry indicate why Nephi need
ed a protected harbor in which to build and
launch his ship. In foreground Gatis Senkans
Family (LDS Members from Latvia)
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Ali Al-Sharhi Author of Rock Art of Dhofar Th
e Language of Aad
shows us his personal museum

• DAY THREE
• Rock art of ships and wadi Darbat above Khor Rori

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Frankincense Tree In yard of Dhofari historian an
d archaeologist
Ali Al-Shahri
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Sample of rock art in caves near Khor Rori.Since
these ships are of a unique design, archaeologist
believe the ships were built at Khor Rori(Museum
of Ali Shashri)
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• Ali Shahri leads our team to caves above Khor
  Rori.

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• Ali son Saeed takes us to the caves.
• Stick is guard against snakes, i.e. cobras.

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• View from Wadi (Valley) Darbat caves to harbor of
  Khor Rori

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• Honey Cave
• Actual name is the Cave of the Snakes

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Ali shows us the cave he lived in for two months
while a teenager and where a man came to collect
wild honey. 2.5 miles from Khor Rori
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• Stick in side of cave indicates where honey was
  gathered.

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• Flower in Wadi Darbat.
• From the caves we continued up Wadi Darbat
  National Park. The valley is located directly
  above Khor Rori having been formed by the same
  creek.

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• Fig tree in wadi Darbat. Some LDS authors claim
  Nephi could have used such trees for building his
  ship. Such gnarly softwoods are useless for
  shipbuilding. For this reason Nephi needed a
  harbor where imported Teak wood from India was
  being traded.

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• Senkans Family in Wadi Darbat. Gatis is the
  District President in Latvia. He and his wife
  Sana helped in the recent translation of the
  Book of Mormon into the Latvian language

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DAY FOUR Nephi Project Returns to Nephis Har
bor at Khor Rori (Refer to our film Discovering
Nephi Harbor)
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• Our guide was Saeed Al-Mashori, Supervisor for
  Khor Rori Excavations for the Archaeological Park.

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• Remains of smelting furnace for Bronze and Iron
  in Sumhuram ruins at Khor Rori

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• Iron smelting slag In Sumhuram fortress at Khor
  Rori.

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Saeed pointed out the ancient ways and moori
ngs at Khor Rori. It would have been impossible
for Nephi to have launch his ship without ways
or ramps to lower the ship into the water. Today
the moorings are far from the water since ocean
levels have decreased while the Arabian peninsula
has been push upward by continental plate
movements.
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Jim Anderson, Garth Norman, Frank Lewandowski
and Wayne Shurtliff inspect an ancient way and
mooring.
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Saeed indicated that the fields and orchards t
hat once supported the harbor city were located
near this fresh water stream.
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• Brian and Pamela Ames stand on cliffs that form
  the natural breakwater at Khor Rori. The cliffs
  project out 400 yards from the shoreline, and
  provide a possible place where Nephis brothers
  tried to throw him into the depths of the sea.

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• We ended expedition with visit to the medieval
  port of Al-Balíd 12 miles west of Khor Rori. The
  port was visited by Marco Polo. Archaeologist
  believe (carbon14 dating) that the sand bar that
  formed the port didnt exist in Nephis era.

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Diane Shurtliff served as our guide through th
e remains of the city of al-Balíd.
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Remains of a huge mosque (120 pillars), indica
te the wealth of the area even up to medieval
times.