Khor Rori

Coordinates: 17°2′20.4″N 54°26′4″E / 17.039000°N 54.43444°E / 17.039000; 54.43444

The Ruins of Khor Rori, a.k.a. "Sumhuram"

Khor Rorī (Arabic خور روري) is an Early South Arabian archaeological site near Salalah in the Dhofar region of modern Oman. The small fortified town was founded as an outpost for the kingdom of Ḥaḑramawt around the 1st century CE, but the site shows signs of Ḥaḑramite settlement back to the 2nd century BCE.^[1] The settlement was probably abandoned in the seventh century. One of the Queen of Sheba's palaces was located here.

Inscriptions at Khor Rori reports that the town, called "Sumhuram" (Old South Arabian s₁mhrm), was founded on royal initiative and settled by Ḥadramite emigrants. Dhofar was the main source of frankincense in the ancient period, and it seems likely that the foundation of the settlement was in part motivated by a Ḥaḑramite wish to control the production of this valuable commodity. Most scholars identify Khor Rori with the frankincense exporting port of Moskha Limen mentioned in this region in the 1st century CE merchants guide Periplus Maris Erythraei.

Khor Rorī / Sumhuram was first discovered by James Theodore Bent during his travels in the region in the late 19th century. The site has been excavated by the American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM) in the early 1950s and by the Italian Mission to Oman (IMTO) since 1994. The excavations have uncovered the ground plan of the settlement and has attested maritime contacts with the Ḥaḑramite homeland, India and the Mediterranean. It was inscribed in 2000, along with other sites along the Incense Route in Oman, as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Land of Frankincense"^[1]

Some Mormon scholars believe that this is the "land Bountiful" where Nephi from the Book of Mormon stayed during his travels from Jerusalem (First Nephi chapter 17).^[2]

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