Nephi records that they “did put forth into the sea” (1 Nephi 18:8). I would have to wonder, considering the size of the ship, how they could have launched a ship weighing many tons, tested it for seaworthiness, and trained a crew without the aid of a resident seafaring population or an established harbor? Salalah has ancient ports at Sumhurum and al-Baleed dating to the first millennium B.C. along with a resident population. Was there a port or seafaring population at Wadi-Sayq? [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
“We Did Put Forth into the Sea”
It has been reported by Kent Brown that there are 14 bays or inlets along the Dhofar coast that were identified by a BYU team of professors sent over to southern Oman in order to investigate the possibilities for Nephi’s Bountiful being located there. [Kent Brown, personal conversation]
Note* Does each bay or inlet identified have the correct environment in which Nephi could have launched a ship? Are there reports or any archaeological remains that might testify that ships the size required by Lehi’s group were ever built and launched there?
Nephi records that they “did put forth into the sea” (1 Nephi 18:8). I would have to wonder, considering the size of the ship, how they could have launched a ship weighing many tons, tested it for seaworthiness, and trained a crew without the aid of a resident seafaring population or an established harbor? Salalah has ancient ports at Sumhurum and al-Baleed dating to the first millennium B.C. along with a resident population. Was there a port or seafaring population at Wadi-Sayq? [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
We Were Driven Forth Before the Wind Towards the Promised Land
The Hiltons note that at least by the sixth century A.D., Arab entrepreneurs were sailing their dhows all the way from the Arabian peninsula to China. The round trip from the Arabian peninsula to China took approximately a year of straight sailing, or six months each way, counting layovers at each end of the journey. Once they emerged from the Malacca Straits, the dhows would sometimes be blown completely off course and would end up in the Pacific, “Where, the Chinese believed, the drain spout of the world’s ocean sucked the unwary sailor into oblivion.”
Although these records date from at least five hundred years after Lehi’s party left Arabia, the existence of coastal shipping and the monsoons may have been the combination of events that enabled Nephi, inspired of the Lord, to reach the Pacific Ocean. If it took later sailors 120 days to sail from Arabia to China, it would possibly have taken Nephi one year to fifteen months to cover the three-times longer distance between Arabia and the Promised Land in America. That voyage is a great testament of faith and courage and an inspiring tribute to Nephi’s ship. What a story remains to be told! [Lynn M. and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, pp. 165-166]
“We Did Put Forth into the Sea and Were Driven Forth Before the Wind Towards the Promised Land”
John Sorenson explains that the Book of Mormon does not give information about the duration of Lehi’s ocean voyage, but the distance alone allows us to estimate time. The distance traveled would have been on the order of seventeen thousand miles. We get valuable comparative data about rates of travel in the mid-Pacific by examining a recent voyage under pre-European conditions by the reconstructed Polynesian double-hulled canoe named Hokule’a… . Given these [data], a full year seems a minimum period to accomplish the long voyage from Arabia to [Central] America. Two years are not unlikely [for Lehi’s party to “put forth into the sea” and be “driven before the wind towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:23)]. [John Sorenson, “Transoceanic Crossings,” in The Book of Mormon: First Nephi, The Doctrinal Foundation, pp. 264-265]
Geographical Theory Map: 1 Nephi 18:8-23 Across the Sea to the Promised Land (Year 012)
1 Nephi 18:8 We did put forth into the sea ([Illustration] This photograph shows the view a departing sea voyager would have looking back at “Bountiful.” [Warren and Michaela Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, p. 66-67]
1 Nephi 18:8 We … were driven forth before the wind ([Illustration] Winter ocean currents in the Indian Ocean and normal ocean currents and atmospheric pressures in the Pacific Ocean. The ECC (the narrow Equatorial Counter Current) is the only Pacific current moving east. The other two, the NEC (North Equatorial Current) and the SEC (South Equatorial Current) move West. [David Clark, “Lehi and El Nino : A Method of Migration,” p. 3]
1 Nephi 18:8 We … were driven forth before the wind ([Illustration] Summer ocean currents in the Indian Ocean and ENSO ocean currents and atmospheric pressures in the Pacific Ocean. The Equatorial Counter Current is intensified during an ENSO period. [David Clark, “Lehi and El Nino: A Method of Migration,” p. 3]
“We Did Put Forth into the Sea”
Boyd Hoglund relates an experience while on a tour retracing Lehi’s steps through Arabia. Prior to leaving on the trip he had studied various articles and books, yet none of the authors he had studied had addressed the question: How and where did they launch the boat? Furthermore, his on site visit only raised more questions about the launching of the boat. He did not see how a boat like Nephi’s could have been launched from the Wadi Sayq area. Near Salalah, as they were gathered near the edge of a high cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea, the lead driver (of their buses) shared an interesting fact: During the monsoon season the winds and currents shift and come in from the southwest, bringing the tides up eight and a half meters higher than throughout the rest of the year. That translates into a tide nearly 27 feet high! Boyd confirmed the height with the guide. He then states:
I stood there totally absorbed in my defining moment of the entire trip… . At last I had my answer. It would have been possible to launch a very large boat when the tide rose 27 feet above its normal height… . My question about launching a large boat was now satisfied as I came to understand at least one way that it could have been done from the shores of the proposed Land Bountiful.
Brother Hogland adds this note:
Let me clarify a point with regard to monsoons. I was raised with the understanding that monsoons consisted of heavy rains for many weeks and that they usually resulted in heavy property damage and even loss of life. While that is true in some areas of the world, it isn’t in the Dhofar Region of Oman. A monsoon in this area consists of a light rain, even a mist-like moisture that comes up every day. Although it does bring moisture its more important contribution is the cooler weather that it provides. This area was a vacation playground for the rich and famous as far back as Old Testament times, and continues to be so today.
[Boyd P. Hoglund, “Launching Nephi’s Ship: How and Where?” in Joseph L. Allen ed. The Book of Mormon Archaeological Digest, Volume II, Issue V, 2000, p. 4]
We Were Driven Forth Before the Wind Towards the Promised Land
Alma 22:28 says that the place of the Lamanites’ first inheritance in the Promised Land was along the seashore west. If this was where Lehi landed, then Lehi probably sailed eastward from Bountiful (1 Nephi 17:1). According to a F.A.R.M.S. article by David Clark, if we assume that the launching site was somewhere on the Indian Ocean, the next question that needs answering is simply how this curious ship was able to travel across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in an eastward direction that most of the time is directly opposed by the wind patterns and surface currents of those oceans. In answering the first part of this question, the Hiltons say that “as shipping records clearly indicate, although from October to May the trade winds come from the northeast; from June to September, the winds come from the southwest. At least by the sixth century A.D., Arab entrepreneurs were sailing their ships all the way from the Arabian peninsula to China. Arab ships rode the monsoons to the Malabar coast of India, then on to Ceylon in time to catch the summer monsoon (June to September) and speed across the often treacherous Bay of Bengal, past the Nicobar Islands, through the Malacca Straits, and into the South China Sea. The trip from the Arabian peninsula to China took approximately 120 days of straight sailing, or six months counting provisioning stops along the way.” In attempting to answer the second part of the question dealing with the crossing of the Pacific, Clark says that since the beginning of the twentieth century, men have known that every three to four years, “normal” atmospheric and oceanic circulation in the tropical Pacific is altered, producing the so-called El Nino effect. If Lehi sailed from the Arabian Peninsula during August of a “El Nino” year, the time would have been not only optimal for northeast monsoon circulation, but also for the harvesting of “fruits and meat and honey in abundance.” Lehi could then reasonable expect to arrive in the Indonesian area in time to catch an El Nino counter current. (Trips from the Arabian Peninsula took four months of straight sailing time.) The El Nino-driven current could then have delivered Lehi’s group to the west coast of Central America. In calculating the time of the voyage from Book of Mormon verses, Nephi only mentions on two separate occasions that they sailed for the “space of many days.” The Liahona, or compass, stopped working, and it wasn’t until after four days that Nephi was freed and a true course restored. However, according to the Hiltons, if it took 120 days to sail from Arabia to China, it would probably have taken Nephi a year to fifteen months to cover the three-times longer distance between Arabia and America. [David Clark, “Lehi and El Nino: A Method of Migration,” F.A.R.M.S, p. 57]
“We Did Put Forth into the Sea”
Which way did Lehi go? According to Glenn Scott, it seems that an alternate route might be considered--one that would not require them to have sighted any land until they arrived at the land of promise.
A possible alternative route would have required them to depart the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula in the winter, when the trade winds blow from the northeast. At that season, both the trade winds and ocean currents would have carried them south along the east coast of Africa and through the madagascar channel (258 miles wide).
South of Madagascar the ocean current swings eastward across the southern Indian Ocean, south of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, into the South Pacific Ocean at about 48 degrees south latitude. At that latitude Lehi’s ship would have been more than fifty miles from any land and over a thousand miles north of the Antarctic Circle. In fact London England is 245 miles closer to the Arctic Circle than this route would have been from the Antarctic Circle.
The current in the South Pacific Ocean would have carried Lehi’s ship steadily eastward into the Western Hemisphere and the Humboldt current would then have carried them northward without sighting land until they arrived at the west coast of Mesoamerica (see illustration).
This route, seemingly more circuitous (when viewed on a flat map) than the equatorial route, is actually about the same total distance. This is because of what international airline pilots call The Great Circle Route. It is the reason that airline flights, say from Kansas City to Tokyo, fly northwest to Seattle, along the southern coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, then southwest to Japan, rather than following the fortieth parallel due west which looks shorter when seen on a flat map. This phenomenon can be demonstrated to the reader’s satisfaction with a world globe, a fabric measuring tape, and some scotch tape. The size of the globe is irrelevant because you will be comparing both distances on the same globe.
After proposing this alternate route in 1983 I was surprised to later learn that Verla Birrell had suggested that same route in 1948 (Book of Mormon Guide Book, Map II). Although Birrell later narrowed her choice of Lehi’s landing place to South America (a widely accepted view in 1948), her map did allow for other possible landing sites, near Panama, in Guatemala, and in Mexico. [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust, p. 85]
Note* All the provisions and drinking water for a sea voyage of such distance and magnitude “without sighting land” would require an unbelievable amount of space in the ship. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
1 Nephi 18:8 We did put forth into the sea ([Illustration] Two possible routes for Lehi’s voyage to the Land of Promise. Note: Alternate route would not require seeing land until arrival. [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust, p. 84]
“We Did Put Forth into the Sea and Were Driven Forth Before the Wind Towards the Promised Land”
Nephi writes that they “did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:8), yet we are left with almost no details of the voyage. For an approximation of those details, one might look to Tim Severin’s book, The Sindbad Voyage. In that book he relates the details of a 71/2 month, 6000-mile voyage from Oman to China in a replica of an ancient Arab ship which he had built. The following excerpts might provide some insight:
The sea road was the great achievement of early Arab navigation. It was nothing less than the 6000-mile voyage by way of Ceylon and South-east Asia to the fabled ports of China. (p. 18)
The Arabs took to the sea with that same philosophy of devotion which helped them cross the great deserts. They set out trusting in the destiny which Allah would provide them, and both camel caravaneer and Arab shipmaster used the same stars to guide them on their courses, believing that God had placed the stars there for that very purpose. [In a previous voyage across the sea], I had only to glance upwards to appreciate the heritage of Arab seafaring: of the major navigation stars used by sailors, most bore Arabic names because it was Arab savants who had developed the art of astronavigation. (p. 16)
My research turned up the chilling fact that in the first part of this century one Arab sailing ship in ten had failed to make its landfall on passages across the Indian Ocean, and had disappeared at sea. And in Sindbad’s time the voyage to China had been considered so dangerous that an experienced sea captain who returned safely was regarded as an exceptional navigator. A successful voyage to China made a man rich for the rest of his life, but the chances of such a trip were very slim. (p. 18)
I calculated that Sohar needed a crew of about twenty men. Eight of them, forming the core of the team, would be Omani sailors who would handle the vessel in traditional style. They would have to be prime seamen, accustomed to shiphandling, because they would have to teach the rest of the crew how to sail the vessel using the very special rig of an Arab boom. (p. 73)
Jumah [one of the Omani sailors] was a treasure, a storehouse of information about the traditional ways of the Arab sailing ship… . He could advise on how to rig and sail Sohar, and I was to learn that he knew exactly what to do in a crisis aboard ship, what rope to cast off, which way to turn the vessel. He had been so long at sea that he had lost track of all the voyages he had made. (p. 77)
Lacking sophisticated instruments to measure the ship’s performance (there was not even a functioning modern log) Sohar’s performance figures are only generalized. Her best day’s run was 130 miles, noon to noon, in the South China Sea. Her maximum speed was perhaps 8-9 knots. On the other hand she was often becalmed, set back by currents, or suffered from appreciable leeway. Her average voyage speed was therefore a little better than 2 knots over the entire route from Muscat to Canton. This is almost exactly the same as the speed of ninth- and tenth-century Arab merchant ships on the same run, calculated from the early texts. (p. 238)
[Quoted from Tim Severin, The Sindbad Voyage, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982] [For more excerpts see the commentaries on 1 Nephi 17:8; 18:6; 18:12; 18:13]
1 Nephi 18:8 We did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land ([Illustration] Track of Sohar [Tim Severin, The Sindbad Voyage, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982, inside front cover]
1 Nephi 18:8 We did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land ([Illustration] Seven centuries before Columbus, Arabs mastered the route to China to seek the riches of the Orient: camphor and cinnamon, pepper and ambergris, silk, gold, gems, porcelain, and sandalwood. The dependability of the monsoon winds (despite Sohar’s trial in the doldrums), the navigator’s sure knowledge of the stars, and the zeal to succeed made possible voyages a quarter of the way round the world. Photographs by Richard Greenhill. [Tim Severin, “In the Wake of Sindbad,” in National Geographic, Vol. 162, no. 1, July 1982, pp. 12-13]
1 Nephi 18:8 We did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land ([Illustration] Sohar. Photograph by Richard Greenfield. [Tim Severin, The Sindbad Voyage, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982, 64-65]
1 Nephi 18:8 We did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land ([Illustration] Seven and a half months after leaving Muscat, Sohar makes her landfall on the China caost. Escorted up the Pearl River to Canton, she received an enthusiastic official welcome for the Chinese. Photograph by Richard Greenfield. [Tim Severin, The Sindbad Voyage, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982, 160-161]
“We Had All Gone Down into the Ship We Did Put Forth into the Sea”
According to Potter and Wellington, the fact that Nephi mentions that they had “gone down into the ship” (1 Nephi 18:8) implies that Nephi’s ship was tied to a mooring before they disembarked. Moored next to a port seawall, Nephi would have used a gangplank to “walk down” into the ship. This appears to be the picture Nephi described as they put their supplies aboard the ship, and as the family entered the ship for the final voyage. Nephi also says that they “put forth into the sea” (1 Nephi 18:8), once again implying that the ship was initially in a port that was somewhat protected from the sea and had to “put forth into the sea.” Nephi’s words also bring up the necessity of a port for building and launching a ship. With this in mind Potter and Wellington made an analysis of all the possible ports in Dhofar using criteria gleaned from the text and also from historical and cultural settings. The following criteria were listed for Nephi’s port:
1. The port would been large enough to accommodate a large ship.
2. The port would have been protected year round from monsoon winds.
3. The port should show evidence of ancient use.
4. It would have been open to the sea during the time of Lehi.
5. It would have had protection from high surf.
6. It was only necessary that Nephi had a place to moor his ship while finishing it.
7. Nephi wrote that the place had “much fruit” (1 Nephi 17:5)
8. There were apparently cliff above deep water nearby because of Laman & Lemuel’s attempt to throw Nephi to his death. (1 Nephi 17:48)
9. Trade with India would have been necessary for large timbers suitable for shipbuilding.
10. There would need to be large domestic timbers nearby.
11. There would need to be access to thousands of coconuts or other material for ropes.
12. Sails would need to be available or the material to make canvas for sails.
13. Iron ore to make tools was nearby. (1 Nephi 17:10)
14. Experienced shipwrights were needed.
15. Experienced ship captains were needed in order to teach Nephi to captain a ship.
16. There was apparently a mountain nearby where the Lord instructed Nephi. (1 Nephi 17:7; 18:3)
17. Sailors capable of teaching Nephi’s crew needed to be available along with facilities for conducting sea trials.
18. “Stones” to make fire with, or flint was needed nearby. (1 Nephi 17:11)
From the results of this comparison (see chart below) Potter and Wellington found only five serious candidates for the place where Nephi built and launched the ship: Reysut, Khor Suli, Khor Taqah, Khor Rori, and Mirbat--all on the Salalah plain. Interestingly, they found no evidence that Khor Kharfot was ever a port in Nephi’s time or at any other time for that matter. By far the strongest candidate was the port of Moscha at Khor Rori, especially when one considers the village of Taqah and Khor Rori as one site, as they are only two miles apart. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), pp. 211, 235-242]
1 Nephi 18:8 We had all gone down into the ship … we did put forth into the sea ([Illustration]-Potter): Positions of the Khors (Ports) on the Salalah Plain. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 261]
1 Nephi 18:8 We had all gone down into the ship … we did put forth into the sea ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): Table to Compare the Possible Ports in Dhofar. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 242]
1 Nephi 18:8 We had all gone down into the ship … we did put forth into the sea ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): A panorama of Khor Rori taken from the top of the west cliffs. The sandbar closing the harbor can be seen in the foreground. The cliffs here are vertical and may well be the place that Laman and Lemuel attempted to throw Nephi into the depths of the sea. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 261]
1 Nephi 18:8 We had all gone down into the ship … we did put forth into the sea ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): Panorama of the harbor of Moscha (Khor Rori) taken from on top; of the “Queen of Sheba’s palace” at Samharam. The Citadel sits atop the cliffs on the left. “Ship;s of Tarshish” probably moored on the shoreline in the foreground. Moscha was the capital port of Dhofar in Nephi’s time. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 261]
1 Nephi 18:8 We had all gone down into the ship … we did put forth into the sea ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): The satellite image shows the amazing cliffs at the mouth of Khor Rori. These natural breakwaters combined with the size of the khor to make it the premiere port in Dhofar. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 261]
1 Nephi 18:8 We had all gone down into the ship … we did put forth into the sea ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): Satellite image of the area of “Merbat” (Taqah), the port of Moscha at Khor Rori, [and wadi Dharbat]. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 261]
1 Nephi 18:8 We had all gone down into the ship … we did put forth into the sea ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): George maps out the width of the trunk of one of the large trees in wadi Dharbat. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 261]
We Were Driven Forth Before the Wind Sails
In 1 Nephi 18:8 Nephi writes that they were “driven forth before the wind.” Later he will write that he “did guide the ship, that [they] sailed again towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:22). Potter and Wellington write that it was the belief of their friend and maritime expert Linehan that Nephi would have required a multi-sailed ship to cross the Pacific safely. A single sailed ship of that size would have been too top heavy. Ships of Nephi’s time appear to have had square or rectangular sails. Such sails were basically used to sail with the wind, and prohibited the vessel from sailing against the wind. When there was an unfavorable wind, the crews had to use their oars or bide their time. Thus it would seem improbable that Nephi could have sailed half way around the world with rectangular sails.
The design of the sail could have been one element in the design of Nephi’s ship where the Lord showed Nephi an improved technology, the lateen sail. Fletcher explains: “With the lateen (triangle-shape) sail, ships can travel almost against the wind by tacking (zig-zagging while heading into the wind), but ships with a square sail can only sail with the wind, not against it.”
One must also assume that there were probably multiple sets of sails on the ship, fair weather and bad weather sails, back up sets for each, and that the sails had to be of excellent quality to power a ship half way around the world. Traditionally the sails on the Arab ships were woven from coconut or palm leaves, or made from cotton cloth. It probably would have taken Nephi, or someone in his party, as much time to learn to weave 21/2 tons of quality canvas as it would have taken to form the entire rest of the ship. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), pp. 215-216]
[1 Nephi 18:8] We Did Put forth into the Sea and Were Driven Forth before the Wind Towards the Promised Land:
Potter and Wellington ask, What historical evidence is there that in Nephi’s time Khor Rori (their proposed Bountiful location in the Dhofar region located on the southern coast of Oman) had a port for large ships capable of sailing long distances?
Good harbors were scarce in southern Arabia, or in the whole peninsula for that matter. The Encyclopedia of Islam reports: “No other great land mass on the surface of the globe provides such a paucity of shelter for ships …” However, according to Brian Doe, the major ports of south Arabia that served as ports anciently were Aden (Euaemon Arabia), Qana (Husn al Ghurab) and Dhufar (Moscha). These ports were presumably in use in Ezekiel’s time since Ezekiel, a contemporary of Nephi, mentions both Canneh (Cana) and Eden (Aden) (Ezekiel 27:23). At this point, we will narrow our focus to Moscha for a couple of reasons. First, Nephi’s travel route required traveling south-southeast along the Red Sea followed by a significant turn to the east (1 Nephi 17:1). Reaching Adan or Canneh required no such prolonged journey to the east, while Moscha is due east of the proposed location of Nahom. Second, the fertile Qara mountains above the ancient Arabian town of Dhofar (Salalah) appears to have had the only Bountiful like ecology along the southern Arabian shoreline.
Now with respect to this ancient port of Moscha in what is now the region of Dhofar, we find some interesting comments. Professor Kamal Salibi, of the American University of Beirut, wrote: “I am personally convinced that the biblical ”Tarshish“ (trsys) was actually an ancient name for coastal Dhofar, where a village called Sarshiti (srsyt) is still to be found.” What does the Bible have to say about “Tarshish”? We find that after capturing Ezion-geber (near Aqaba), Solomon built a navy and sent ships to Tarshish, from whence they returned with peacocks, or birds indigenous to India. King Jehoshaphat (873-849 B.C.) of Judah joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel “to make ships [in Ezion-geber] to go to Tarshish” but “the ships were broken” (2 Chronicles 20:36-37). Correlating this information with the companion record of 1 Kings, we find that “Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold but they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber” (1 Kings 22:48). Bertram Thomas, among others, has suggested that Ophir was in present day Dhofar. Moreover, it appears that the same area (Dhofar-Ophir) was also known as Tarshish, whose inhabitants acted as middle-men for Indian products transported by ship to Palestine. We therefore have probable biblical evidence showing the use of a port in Dhofar from the 10th to the 6th centuries B.C., with knowledge in Palestine of its whereabouts and its shipping connection to India.
The biblical expression “ships of Tarshish” was used to denote ships of the largest size, suitable for long voyages. According to Nayanjot Lahiri, recent research suggests that a “maritime route from the Mediterranean to India” existed during the period 1000 B.C. to 200 B.C. These ships would of course, have passed along the coast of Dhofar.
The Periplus (“of the Erythrean Sea”), literally meaning “roundtrip,” is an Greek account of a trading journey between Egypt and India made by an unknown merchant or ship’s master. The date of authorship is not known and may be somewhere between A.D. 40 and the early 3rd century. According to the Periplus
Immediately beyond Syagrus, the bay of Omana cuts deep into the coastline and beyond it there are mountains … high … and rock steep … And beyond this is a port established for receiving the Sachelite frankincense; the harbour is called Moscha, and the ships from Cana call there regularly… .
Concerning the location of this harbor for loading Sachelite frankincense, Nigel Groom notes:
The identification of ancient Sachalite with modern Zufar (Dhofar) has now been confirmed by the discovery of inscriptions at Khor Rori, on the Zufar coast, referring to the region of sakil, meaning a coastal plain, which is the present name of that coastal area.
The remains of this port of Moscha, as it was known to the Greeks, can still be seen at Khor Rori where there are a number of impressive ruins built by the Hadramautis, who invaded to take control of the Frankincense trade. They renamed the port city Samhuram (Sumhuram, Samaram, Snhar, Smhrm) which is a composite word meaning “the plan is great” or “the great scheme.” Peter Vine gives additional support that this renamed port of Samhuram (Moscha) at Khor Rori was in use prior to the time of the Hadramaut expansion: “It is clear that a substantial settlement existed at the site long before king Iliazzyalit instructed the builders to construct a city there.” [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), pp. 243-246]