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THE ROAD TO UBAR. Finding the Atlantis of the Sands.
What is it about the inhospitable corners of the world that so attracts the imagination? Scott in the Antarctic, Hillary on top of Everest, and a multitude of wanderers--from Wilfred Thesiger and T. E. Lawrence to Gertrude Bell--wandering through the vast, empty sands of "the empty quarter" in what is now Saudi Arabia; each of these explorers has been drawn to places most of us would never think of going and found there an unexpected window onto their own souls. In The Road to Ubar , filmmaker Nicholas Clapp follows in the footsteps of earlier visitors to the Arabian peninsula as he seeks the legendary city of Ubar. Going back at least two millennia, stories about a vast city filled with gold that disappeared almost in an instant haunt the literature and lore of Arabia. And for almost as long as the stories have been around, so have the rogues and dreamers who have tried to find it. His interest sparked by the accounts of earlier travelers in the region such as Thesiger and Bertram Thomas, Clapp decided to put together his own team in hopes of finding and filming the lost city. Using both modern tools (photographs taken from space, courtesy of NASA) as well as old ones (maps, descriptions, and written accounts), Clapp and his team slowly pieced together the clues until they arrived, at last, at the site where they would spend the next four years digging. How they got to the end of The Road to Ubar and what they found there is at the heart of this unusual travel memoir.
348 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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July 12, 2024
This isn't the first book about the (re)discovery of Ubar, a city lost in the Empty Quarter, the desert of the Arabian peninsular, in modern day Oman. Around five years ago I read Ranulph Fiennes' Atlantis of the Sands: The Search for the Lost City of Ubar, and enjoyed it such that I gave it four stars. (It was before I wrote reviews, so my comments below are based largely on memory.)
The impression I came away with, from Fiennes' book, was the it was his expedition, and his long-standing ambition to find this city. His book revolves significantly (and not unfairly) around his contribution to the finding of the city, and is mingled with teasers about this other significant expedition work - largely Arctic.
Nicholas Clapp's book, is quite a different book. Here Clapp outlines a brief trip to Oman in 1980, where he and his wife were part of a team delivering oryx (Arabian antelope) to Oman to be released to re-propagate the species. It was this brief introduction to Oman that left Clapp and his wife Kay looking for a reason to get back to Oman. It took them ten years.
Clapp stumbled upon the Koranic myth of the city of Ubar - destroyed by God because the cities leaders refused to acknowledge God. And from there, he spent years researching maps and ancient books looking for more clues.
Having convinced himself of the possibility, he set about expanding his research. He contacted NASA and convinced them to carry out some thermal imaging while the space shuttle passed overhead, and set about establishing a team - Ranulph Fiennes included, as well as a geologist from NASA, an archaeologist, a sponsorship manager and others. Central to this team were Nicholas Clapp and his wife Kay. Fiennes plays an important role - both in being responsible for the technicalities of the expedition, but also in obtaining permission from the Sultan of Oman.
Clapp's book is rolled out in three sections - which are all roughly equal in length - the first aptly named "Myth", where he outlines his research - the stories, the history, the maps, the scholarly references. The second - "Expedition" covers the original reconnaissance trip (August 1990), then the actual expedition (November 1991), discovery and archaeology (four seasons over four years). The third section recaps all that was discovered, providing context around the time-lines and overall picture, followed by some imaginative writing to set the scene for the readers understanding of events at Ubar - the incense trade, a visit by the king, the moral failings of the city, and warnings from Hud (the Jew mentioned in the Koran, warning the people of 'Ad, that they must worship God), and the eventual destruction of Ubar.
Following this are appendices, where a archaeological time-line is provided, a glossary of people and places, and some further reflection on Hud. There is also a detailed bibliography and an index.
This was a very well structured and well presented book. While Fiennes' book had a number of black and white photos, they were unclear, and didn't contribute much - Clapp's book contains many careful ink drawings - maps, diagrams, sketches etc which very clearly illustrate what is happening. They were a clever addition, where photographs were probably not going to work. I enjoyed Clapp's fictionalizing of events to add depth to what might have been a fairly dry (no pun intended) archaeological narrative, and he was quite clear in signalling where he moved into embellishment.
It would have been interesting to read Fiennes' book closer to this one, and pick out any anomalies, and although I still have it in my shelf, I lacked the motivation (although I did flick through it briefly) and was captivated enough with Clapp's book to leave it be.
5 stars.
PS there are a lot of things I didn't mention in this review, as they are spoilers in some ways - they discovered some interesting things, and reading the book would we rewarded by finding them out. I recommend seeking out this one over Fiennes' book.
The impression I came away with, from Fiennes' book, was the it was his expedition, and his long-standing ambition to find this city. His book revolves significantly (and not unfairly) around his contribution to the finding of the city, and is mingled with teasers about this other significant expedition work - largely Arctic.
Nicholas Clapp's book, is quite a different book. Here Clapp outlines a brief trip to Oman in 1980, where he and his wife were part of a team delivering oryx (Arabian antelope) to Oman to be released to re-propagate the species. It was this brief introduction to Oman that left Clapp and his wife Kay looking for a reason to get back to Oman. It took them ten years.
Clapp stumbled upon the Koranic myth of the city of Ubar - destroyed by God because the cities leaders refused to acknowledge God. And from there, he spent years researching maps and ancient books looking for more clues.
Having convinced himself of the possibility, he set about expanding his research. He contacted NASA and convinced them to carry out some thermal imaging while the space shuttle passed overhead, and set about establishing a team - Ranulph Fiennes included, as well as a geologist from NASA, an archaeologist, a sponsorship manager and others. Central to this team were Nicholas Clapp and his wife Kay. Fiennes plays an important role - both in being responsible for the technicalities of the expedition, but also in obtaining permission from the Sultan of Oman.
Clapp's book is rolled out in three sections - which are all roughly equal in length - the first aptly named "Myth", where he outlines his research - the stories, the history, the maps, the scholarly references. The second - "Expedition" covers the original reconnaissance trip (August 1990), then the actual expedition (November 1991), discovery and archaeology (four seasons over four years). The third section recaps all that was discovered, providing context around the time-lines and overall picture, followed by some imaginative writing to set the scene for the readers understanding of events at Ubar - the incense trade, a visit by the king, the moral failings of the city, and warnings from Hud (the Jew mentioned in the Koran, warning the people of 'Ad, that they must worship God), and the eventual destruction of Ubar.
Following this are appendices, where a archaeological time-line is provided, a glossary of people and places, and some further reflection on Hud. There is also a detailed bibliography and an index.
This was a very well structured and well presented book. While Fiennes' book had a number of black and white photos, they were unclear, and didn't contribute much - Clapp's book contains many careful ink drawings - maps, diagrams, sketches etc which very clearly illustrate what is happening. They were a clever addition, where photographs were probably not going to work. I enjoyed Clapp's fictionalizing of events to add depth to what might have been a fairly dry (no pun intended) archaeological narrative, and he was quite clear in signalling where he moved into embellishment.
It would have been interesting to read Fiennes' book closer to this one, and pick out any anomalies, and although I still have it in my shelf, I lacked the motivation (although I did flick through it briefly) and was captivated enough with Clapp's book to leave it be.
5 stars.
PS there are a lot of things I didn't mention in this review, as they are spoilers in some ways - they discovered some interesting things, and reading the book would we rewarded by finding them out. I recommend seeking out this one over Fiennes' book.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2019
"Well, look at that," said Bob. What remained on his monitor was a thin black line that arced up across the screen and led off into the dunes of the Rub' al-Khali.
We took turns, like little kids, following it with our fingers.
There it was, before our eyes and in far Arabia, the road to Ubar.
September 17, 2014
Chronicling archaeological finds, religious texts, popular fiction, and local folklore, Nicholas Clapp spins a captivating tale of the "Atlantis of the Sands," only in this tale the mythological city is actually found, excavated, and its history pieced together for the readers. Well researched and well written, this book opens up a window to the history of ancient Arabia that many may not be familiar with.
June 7, 2011
An amazing archaological tale about the search for the mythical city of Ubar. A great nonfiction read. Very thrilling! One of my favorite books.
July 24, 2023
The Road to Ubar - the true story of the Search to find the Lost City of Ubar on the Arabian Peninsula.
This ancient citadel was famous almost 2000 years ago for being a major trading and collecting town for frankincense - and also for being the last watering hole on the southern edge of what is now the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula. Caravans would have to stock up on frankincense and water before heading north to cross the desert carrying the much prized incense which can only be found in the Dhofar region of modern day Oman.
Nicolas Clapp was a film and documentary maker and also an amateur archaeologist. After reading a book about the Middle East, he decided it might be fun to go and find a lost city. The Plans to find Ubar began back in the mid to late 1980s, but funding and equipment was hard to come by. With the help of the JPL in Los Angeles and some satellite imaging Maps, Nicholas was able to prove the potential of finding the lost city of Ubar. It is also called Atlantis of the Sands, because, like the ancient myth, this city also disappeared over night and noone knows how or why.
The planning was held up in 1991 by Desert Storm, but in 1992, eventually the search began. The team were very lucky and very successful in that they finally found an old village called Shisur that had a spring and some ancient ruins. 3 years of diggnng found proof of the city, and also the reason why this city disappeared so fast. The answer is a large Sinkhole.
The first 2 parts are the interesting parts. Part 1 tells of the search and part 2 describes the actual expedition in Oman. Part 3 is mostly stories, myths and history and background behind Ubar. It is pretty much an info dump. It is not necessary to the main story unless you choose to read it.
This ancient citadel was famous almost 2000 years ago for being a major trading and collecting town for frankincense - and also for being the last watering hole on the southern edge of what is now the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula. Caravans would have to stock up on frankincense and water before heading north to cross the desert carrying the much prized incense which can only be found in the Dhofar region of modern day Oman.
Nicolas Clapp was a film and documentary maker and also an amateur archaeologist. After reading a book about the Middle East, he decided it might be fun to go and find a lost city. The Plans to find Ubar began back in the mid to late 1980s, but funding and equipment was hard to come by. With the help of the JPL in Los Angeles and some satellite imaging Maps, Nicholas was able to prove the potential of finding the lost city of Ubar. It is also called Atlantis of the Sands, because, like the ancient myth, this city also disappeared over night and noone knows how or why.
The planning was held up in 1991 by Desert Storm, but in 1992, eventually the search began. The team were very lucky and very successful in that they finally found an old village called Shisur that had a spring and some ancient ruins. 3 years of diggnng found proof of the city, and also the reason why this city disappeared so fast. The answer is a large Sinkhole.
The first 2 parts are the interesting parts. Part 1 tells of the search and part 2 describes the actual expedition in Oman. Part 3 is mostly stories, myths and history and background behind Ubar. It is pretty much an info dump. It is not necessary to the main story unless you choose to read it.
July 11, 2017
This book is a classic! A must read for anyone interested in learning about the Empty Quarter in Oman, ancient history, and how the field of archeology connects with anthropology, religious scriptures, and modern day politics. Nicholas Clapp is brilliant and this book is a wonderful contribution to Middle Eastern literature.
I also recommend this book to anyone who is at a current impasse in their lives; seeing how ancient civilizations rise and fall and live on in local folklore will inspire each of use to follow our own Crescent Moon.
I also recommend this book to anyone who is at a current impasse in their lives; seeing how ancient civilizations rise and fall and live on in local folklore will inspire each of use to follow our own Crescent Moon.
May 29, 2019
Search for a lost city in the middle of the desert is a very interesting and exciting content, even more interesting than just a physical search was for me the author’s research of myths, legends, traditions ... and how he linked them with the reality. This nonfiction book is a nice story about human curiosity, archeology, anthropology and interesting window to the unknown (for me) Arabian ancient history. Between 3 and 4 ⭐️
October 11, 2012
Gripping Read: Nicholas Clapp's personal account of a brilliant piece of archaeological detective work, and a gripping read in its own right; is called "The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands."
Perhaps because I'd imagined Petra for decades, then finally arrived there and explored that 'lost city,' Ubar held personal fascination in 2012, for me. Perhaps, because I lived (in Spain) on the zero meridian line (where Marconi performed discoveries), perhaps the attraction to The Silk Road and loving incense, since Ubar was historically & mythologically know as a jumping off point for Frankincense trade. Another perhaps, I've an insatiable curiosity!
Excavations began the following month. After many false starts, dead ends and weeks of digging, 1991 became 1992 and the work went on. But slowly, evidence began to emerge of an octagonal fortified city with 30-foot towers and thick walls. Inside, were many buildings including storerooms. Frankincense burners and pottery shards from various regions were found dating back to about 2000 BC!
Ultimately, the author, with his own insatiable curiosity discovered that the legend of Ubar surfaced when the city sank into the sands. And this city collapsed into an underground cavern. Of all the sites in all the ancient world, Ubar came to a unique and peculiar end-an end identical in myth and now-it transpired, in reality.
There was no question. It was Ubar -the Atlantis of the Sands. As Clapp says: "Before the discovery, all that was known of Ubar was its myth and legend and that there was a road out in the desert that just might lead to the lost city.
"The lore of Ubar proved to be a striking match for its reality. Ubar was in the right place, it was of the right age, and it had been destroyed exactly as the myth had described."
But perhaps the single most amazing thing about the lost city of Ubar is the way it was found the technology of the future literally unearthing the secrets of the past.
As Blom put it following the discovery: "People have written about Ubar for thousands of years, and they hunted for it in the desert all through this century without any luck. And we cracked the case sitting here in Pasadena." (At the JPL.)
One day, while leafing through a newspaper, Clapp came across a story about how an aerial radar system had located Mayan ruins buried beneath a dense jungle in Central America.
It was as if he had been struck by lightning: if modern satellite technology could do this, could it locate caravan routes buried under a thousand years of drifting sands? Could the technology of the future fast-forward him to the past? Could it find Ubar?
The questions had barely formed themselves when Clapp decided to call the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA to find the answers. "I knew how crazy a request like that would sound to real scientists," he recalled. "So I really had to work myself up to it. For a while I just stared at the 'phone and asked myself: am I really going to do something this stupid."
Unknown to Clapp, the scientist he would be speaking to moments later had a motto above his computer terminal which implored: DARE TO BE STUPID!
From that moment, an alliance was formed between Clapp and research geologist Dr. Ron Blom. Although it would be another 10 years before Ubar was found, that first nervous phone call in 1983, was to prove a pivotal moment.
'...Ubar' with the promise I'd read it soon. That was today. I read it in one sitting, with several telephone interruptions I resented. It was the reward read I'd hoped!
Perhaps because I'd imagined Petra for decades, then finally arrived there and explored that 'lost city,' Ubar held personal fascination in 2012, for me. Perhaps, because I lived (in Spain) on the zero meridian line (where Marconi performed discoveries), perhaps the attraction to The Silk Road and loving incense, since Ubar was historically & mythologically know as a jumping off point for Frankincense trade. Another perhaps, I've an insatiable curiosity!
Excavations began the following month. After many false starts, dead ends and weeks of digging, 1991 became 1992 and the work went on. But slowly, evidence began to emerge of an octagonal fortified city with 30-foot towers and thick walls. Inside, were many buildings including storerooms. Frankincense burners and pottery shards from various regions were found dating back to about 2000 BC!
Ultimately, the author, with his own insatiable curiosity discovered that the legend of Ubar surfaced when the city sank into the sands. And this city collapsed into an underground cavern. Of all the sites in all the ancient world, Ubar came to a unique and peculiar end-an end identical in myth and now-it transpired, in reality.
There was no question. It was Ubar -the Atlantis of the Sands. As Clapp says: "Before the discovery, all that was known of Ubar was its myth and legend and that there was a road out in the desert that just might lead to the lost city.
"The lore of Ubar proved to be a striking match for its reality. Ubar was in the right place, it was of the right age, and it had been destroyed exactly as the myth had described."
But perhaps the single most amazing thing about the lost city of Ubar is the way it was found the technology of the future literally unearthing the secrets of the past.
As Blom put it following the discovery: "People have written about Ubar for thousands of years, and they hunted for it in the desert all through this century without any luck. And we cracked the case sitting here in Pasadena." (At the JPL.)
One day, while leafing through a newspaper, Clapp came across a story about how an aerial radar system had located Mayan ruins buried beneath a dense jungle in Central America.
It was as if he had been struck by lightning: if modern satellite technology could do this, could it locate caravan routes buried under a thousand years of drifting sands? Could the technology of the future fast-forward him to the past? Could it find Ubar?
The questions had barely formed themselves when Clapp decided to call the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA to find the answers. "I knew how crazy a request like that would sound to real scientists," he recalled. "So I really had to work myself up to it. For a while I just stared at the 'phone and asked myself: am I really going to do something this stupid."
Unknown to Clapp, the scientist he would be speaking to moments later had a motto above his computer terminal which implored: DARE TO BE STUPID!
From that moment, an alliance was formed between Clapp and research geologist Dr. Ron Blom. Although it would be another 10 years before Ubar was found, that first nervous phone call in 1983, was to prove a pivotal moment.
'...Ubar' with the promise I'd read it soon. That was today. I read it in one sitting, with several telephone interruptions I resented. It was the reward read I'd hoped!
December 31, 2018
Fascinated with Arabia and the Rub' al-Khali when filming the return of Arabian oryxes to the wilderness of Oman, Nicholas Clapp was looking for a reason to return. It was a book recommended by a friendly used book seller that gave him the opening and a near-obsession with the lost city of Ubar.
If nothing else, this book goes into detail about pre-expedition work - finding sources confirming the site (literary references to satellite imagery); convincing professionals to take a chance on the expedition; funding sources; government officials and the numerous permits. Working with locals especially when dealing with possible religious or restricted sites. The difficulties in weeding tradition and hearsay from facts especially when dealing with a site thousands of years old.
In the end, Clapp's enthusiasm and dedication led to a site that many agree could be the former city of Ubar, destroyed by the wrath of God which took the form of a massive sinkhole collapse around the well that provided for the outpost and caravans that moved along the frankincense trade route. The archaeologist associated with the expedition - Dr. Juris Zarins - provided a time table for the area which was once lush savanna with open streams and lakes inhabited for nearly 700,000 years, from the time of Homo Erectus through Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Parthia, Greece and Rome.
There is also 'reflections on the prophet Hud' whose tales provided clues to the possible location of Ubar or the Shisr fortress just within the borders of Oman from Yemen.
It is actually interesting to read Clapp's acknowledgements of his financial and material backers - most of which are part of the Omani government and businesses.
Interested in ancient history outside of the everyday or the mysteries of lost cities and civilizations? This book hits both topics.
If nothing else, this book goes into detail about pre-expedition work - finding sources confirming the site (literary references to satellite imagery); convincing professionals to take a chance on the expedition; funding sources; government officials and the numerous permits. Working with locals especially when dealing with possible religious or restricted sites. The difficulties in weeding tradition and hearsay from facts especially when dealing with a site thousands of years old.
In the end, Clapp's enthusiasm and dedication led to a site that many agree could be the former city of Ubar, destroyed by the wrath of God which took the form of a massive sinkhole collapse around the well that provided for the outpost and caravans that moved along the frankincense trade route. The archaeologist associated with the expedition - Dr. Juris Zarins - provided a time table for the area which was once lush savanna with open streams and lakes inhabited for nearly 700,000 years, from the time of Homo Erectus through Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Parthia, Greece and Rome.
There is also 'reflections on the prophet Hud' whose tales provided clues to the possible location of Ubar or the Shisr fortress just within the borders of Oman from Yemen.
It is actually interesting to read Clapp's acknowledgements of his financial and material backers - most of which are part of the Omani government and businesses.
Interested in ancient history outside of the everyday or the mysteries of lost cities and civilizations? This book hits both topics.
March 13, 2008
Wonderful book about the city of Ubar/ and the frankcense trade in the Arabian penisula in the early first millenium. The author was a documentary filmmaker who did the research on his own and finally persuaded the Jet Perpulsion Labortory, an archelogist, and an expedition leader to help him find this place. JPL added the area to a ground search radar mission on the space shuttle. Ran Fiennes convinces the Sultan of Oman to allow them to search through his country. They finally find it under a current settlement of shisur. The best part of the book is the description and diagrams of the archelogical work. There is a series of drawings which map the progression week by week as they uncover the ancient settlement. It really gives an excellent description on how archelogical digs work (well incredibly successful ones). It also traces the myth of the place and the detective work on linking myth/legend with reality. Ubar was mentioned in the Koran and had a long oral tradition in Arabia as a city destroyed by God for its riches. Hud was a prophet who preached to the unbelievers in Ubar. The site did show a catastrophic sinkhole that may have been the cause of its sudden calapse.
The book also showed the ex-patriot volunteers from various government projects in Oman who helped. It showed how the ex-patriot community works and how people in long term assignments gain knowledge of the area that the locals never do (and showed some of the same insular personalities as Egypt has).
The book also showed the ex-patriot volunteers from various government projects in Oman who helped. It showed how the ex-patriot community works and how people in long term assignments gain knowledge of the area that the locals never do (and showed some of the same insular personalities as Egypt has).
December 14, 2008
I detest the "no crap, there I was" genre, in which someone with no qualifications goes someplace, behaves poorly and generally accomplishes nothing besides making Americans look like idiots - all under the heading of doing something vaguely archaeological (like finding King Solomon's Mines). "The Road to Ubar" was impressive because it started where the others do (with an amateur who has a cool idea), but then went in the direction that none of the others that I've found so far do - the author found some experts and eventually accomplished something. It isn't a powerfully moving story, but it is satisfying and interesting. Also, the story moves and is written in a fairly linear fashion, so it isn't hard to follow.
April 16, 2025
The Road to Ubar is a complete contrast to the previous book [Bibby’s Looking for Dilmun which I read last week]. Nicholas Clapp is not an archaeologist, but a documentary filmmaker; his wife, Kay, is a probation officer. After a trip to Muscat, they were looking for an excuse to return to Arabia, and fixed on the idea of looking for the legendary lost city of Ubar. After some research (mostly in ancient and mediaeval sources, including the Thousand Nights and a Night), Clapp concluded(mainly through wishful thinking) that Ubar (or Wabar), the Quranic Irem, and Claudius Ptolemy’s Omanum Emporium referred to the same place, somewhere in the Rub’ al Khali (the Arabian desert or “Empty Quarter”). He recruited a team of other explorers, including polar adventurer Sir Ranulf Fiennes, a JPL satellite expert, Ron Blom, and a few others. The self-image of most of the team was not as archaeologists but as explorer-adventurers in the tradition of Wendell Phillips, Lawrence of Arabia, and Bertram Thomas, whose adventures in Arabia were one of his main “sources”. They managed to get funding and permission from the Sultan to explore for the lost city. They also recruited one real archaeologist, Juris Zarins.
The first third of the book is taken up with myths, legends, fiction and even records of his own daydreams, as well as searching radar maps from the shuttle Challenger and various satellites, and of course the quest for funding and so forth. The second third is about the actual expedition in 1990. They spent a few days looking for Ubar in the desert, gave up after finding nothing and returned to the oasis and modern town of Shisur. While there, Zarins noticed that the fifteenth-century fort there, on the rim of a large sinkhole, seemed to have been re-built on top of an older fort. Immediately, Clapp decided that they had after all “found” Ubar.
He gives four reasons for the identification, although he never seems to have doubted it. First, location. It was in the right place. Except of course that it wasn’t; the legends all put Ubar where they originally looked for it, deep in the heart of the Rub’ al Khalit. Shisur is just outside the Rub’ al Khalit. Secondly, it was the right age. This was before the excavation had even been dated (and we’re never told exactly how it was dated, as opposed to the detailed accounts of pottery and so forth in Bibby’s book.), while the legends of course don’t date Ubar or Irem at all. Thirdly, it had the right “characteristics”; Irem is described as “many-columned” and the Shisur ruins had many towers (he tells us that the word translated as “columned” could actually refer to any tall structure.) Of course, the legends also claim that Ubar and Irem were cities full of gold and precious stones and all the paraphernalia of fantasy, nothing of which was ever found at Shisur; in fact it turned out not even to be a city as the word is usually understood. Finally, it was spectacularly destroyed by falling into the sinkhole, which agrees with one of the many accounts of Ubar’s destruction (it sank into the sands).
Zarins began excavating the north rim of the sinkhole and found a wall with several towers. He and some of his students would return for four seasons of digging. The story of the excavations was the only more or less worthwhile part of the book; it takes up at most about thirty pages. What they actually found was a fortified oasis, a watering-hole for frankincense-bearing camel caravans before entering the desert route north toward Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. As it turns out (and the book never mentions) it was one of several such stations along the incense route. Certainly, it was worth excavating, but not a really important site, without the hype about Ubar. Another thing the book never happens to tell us (but is easy to discover in about five minutes of Internet research) is that Zarins himself, the only actual archaeologist of the group and the one who did the actual excavation, does not consider it to be Ubar. This to me is particularly significant, since Zarins’s own reputation would be much higher as the excavator of legendary Ubar than as the excavator of a fortified water-hole.
In the third part, Clapp gives us a highly speculative and in places actually fictional narrative of what he considers the history of “Ubar”. In all, the subtitle, "finding the Atlantis of the sands" (and
Fiennes also wrote a book about the expedition called The Atlantis of the Sands, claiming credit for the whole expedition) seems to be unconsciously ironic; like Atlantis, Ubar is probably a completely legendary place, which attracts over-imaginative people to "search" for it.
As I said above, the only part of this I would consider worth reading is the thirty pages or so about the actual excavation, and even that only because there is so little popular writing on Arabian archaeology.
The first third of the book is taken up with myths, legends, fiction and even records of his own daydreams, as well as searching radar maps from the shuttle Challenger and various satellites, and of course the quest for funding and so forth. The second third is about the actual expedition in 1990. They spent a few days looking for Ubar in the desert, gave up after finding nothing and returned to the oasis and modern town of Shisur. While there, Zarins noticed that the fifteenth-century fort there, on the rim of a large sinkhole, seemed to have been re-built on top of an older fort. Immediately, Clapp decided that they had after all “found” Ubar.
He gives four reasons for the identification, although he never seems to have doubted it. First, location. It was in the right place. Except of course that it wasn’t; the legends all put Ubar where they originally looked for it, deep in the heart of the Rub’ al Khalit. Shisur is just outside the Rub’ al Khalit. Secondly, it was the right age. This was before the excavation had even been dated (and we’re never told exactly how it was dated, as opposed to the detailed accounts of pottery and so forth in Bibby’s book.), while the legends of course don’t date Ubar or Irem at all. Thirdly, it had the right “characteristics”; Irem is described as “many-columned” and the Shisur ruins had many towers (he tells us that the word translated as “columned” could actually refer to any tall structure.) Of course, the legends also claim that Ubar and Irem were cities full of gold and precious stones and all the paraphernalia of fantasy, nothing of which was ever found at Shisur; in fact it turned out not even to be a city as the word is usually understood. Finally, it was spectacularly destroyed by falling into the sinkhole, which agrees with one of the many accounts of Ubar’s destruction (it sank into the sands).
Zarins began excavating the north rim of the sinkhole and found a wall with several towers. He and some of his students would return for four seasons of digging. The story of the excavations was the only more or less worthwhile part of the book; it takes up at most about thirty pages. What they actually found was a fortified oasis, a watering-hole for frankincense-bearing camel caravans before entering the desert route north toward Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. As it turns out (and the book never mentions) it was one of several such stations along the incense route. Certainly, it was worth excavating, but not a really important site, without the hype about Ubar. Another thing the book never happens to tell us (but is easy to discover in about five minutes of Internet research) is that Zarins himself, the only actual archaeologist of the group and the one who did the actual excavation, does not consider it to be Ubar. This to me is particularly significant, since Zarins’s own reputation would be much higher as the excavator of legendary Ubar than as the excavator of a fortified water-hole.
In the third part, Clapp gives us a highly speculative and in places actually fictional narrative of what he considers the history of “Ubar”. In all, the subtitle, "finding the Atlantis of the sands" (and
Fiennes also wrote a book about the expedition called The Atlantis of the Sands, claiming credit for the whole expedition) seems to be unconsciously ironic; like Atlantis, Ubar is probably a completely legendary place, which attracts over-imaginative people to "search" for it.
As I said above, the only part of this I would consider worth reading is the thirty pages or so about the actual excavation, and even that only because there is so little popular writing on Arabian archaeology.
August 16, 2017
Oh, well ...
Era da un bel po' che avevo comprato questo libro, pensando di trovarci un romanzo (quasi una decina d'anni fa credo) e invece era il resoconto romanzato di Clapp, un sedicente Indiana Jones alla ricerca di una "città" perduta nel deserto. Il titolo di per sé è abbastanza ingannevole. Benché Shisur ora sia visibile su google earth e ci siano miriadi di foto caricate dai visitatori di Ubar, tutto era, fuorché una Atlantide delle sabbie. Nella sostanza, la città che hanno riportato alla luce è una fortezza nel deserto di 30-40 metri per 30-40 metri, con un muro di cinta imponente - per i popoli del deserto - la cui struttura continua è spezzata da torri a base circolare o quadrata ogni 5/6 metri e una cittadella, in cui probabilmente vi era la sede del signore locale/delle autorità cittadine. Naturalmente questa fortificazione va vista in proporzione. Se per gli occhi degli abitanti dei deserti mediorientali questa fortezza è strabiliante, agli occhi di un cittadino romano questo paragone viene meno. Basti pensare all'imponenza del "Pont Du Garde", e via dicendo. Lungo la cinta di mura perimetrale, all'apparenza le tende degli abitanti. Il crollo del letto di sabbia su cui fondava la città ha portato l'intero sito all'abbandono. Il libro di per sé non aggiunge granché di storico, se non un piccolo tassello in tutto il quadro "mitologico" descritto dal Corano (i riferimenti ai "palazzi superbi" della civiltà 'Ad nel Corano, altro non sono che le torri della cittadella). Il che alla fine significa che i testi più antichi sono come le chiacchiere di paese: tendono ad ingigantirsi. Nella sostanza storica invece il ritrovamento di Ubar arricchisce il panorama dell'Arabia. Collega miti provenienti dal mondo antico a luoghi geografici definiti, composti da abitanti che intrattenevano una fitta rete di commerci tra loro - incensi, spezie, eccetera. Il che conferma quanto scritto in un passo di questo testo http://www.anobii.com/books/Il_mondo_... (se non vado errato), che l'uomo è in grado di compiere grandi spostamenti (nel testo citato si fa riferimento ai nomadi dei deserti dell'Asia, che compiono attraversate di centinaia di chilometri solo per andare a stringere la mano e salutare i visitatori provenienti dall'Europa) per qualunque genere di motivo, ed è grazie a questa mobilità se riesce a sopravvivere anche in zone veramente poco ospitali. L'ultima parte (diciamo a 4/5 di testo) è stata la mia preferita, in quanto discute dei ritrovamenti archeologi dell'area (tra cui degli antichissimi scacchi - che si presume proveniente dall'India, come gioco, del 600 d.C.).
Era da un bel po' che avevo comprato questo libro, pensando di trovarci un romanzo (quasi una decina d'anni fa credo) e invece era il resoconto romanzato di Clapp, un sedicente Indiana Jones alla ricerca di una "città" perduta nel deserto. Il titolo di per sé è abbastanza ingannevole. Benché Shisur ora sia visibile su google earth e ci siano miriadi di foto caricate dai visitatori di Ubar, tutto era, fuorché una Atlantide delle sabbie. Nella sostanza, la città che hanno riportato alla luce è una fortezza nel deserto di 30-40 metri per 30-40 metri, con un muro di cinta imponente - per i popoli del deserto - la cui struttura continua è spezzata da torri a base circolare o quadrata ogni 5/6 metri e una cittadella, in cui probabilmente vi era la sede del signore locale/delle autorità cittadine. Naturalmente questa fortificazione va vista in proporzione. Se per gli occhi degli abitanti dei deserti mediorientali questa fortezza è strabiliante, agli occhi di un cittadino romano questo paragone viene meno. Basti pensare all'imponenza del "Pont Du Garde", e via dicendo. Lungo la cinta di mura perimetrale, all'apparenza le tende degli abitanti. Il crollo del letto di sabbia su cui fondava la città ha portato l'intero sito all'abbandono. Il libro di per sé non aggiunge granché di storico, se non un piccolo tassello in tutto il quadro "mitologico" descritto dal Corano (i riferimenti ai "palazzi superbi" della civiltà 'Ad nel Corano, altro non sono che le torri della cittadella). Il che alla fine significa che i testi più antichi sono come le chiacchiere di paese: tendono ad ingigantirsi. Nella sostanza storica invece il ritrovamento di Ubar arricchisce il panorama dell'Arabia. Collega miti provenienti dal mondo antico a luoghi geografici definiti, composti da abitanti che intrattenevano una fitta rete di commerci tra loro - incensi, spezie, eccetera. Il che conferma quanto scritto in un passo di questo testo http://www.anobii.com/books/Il_mondo_... (se non vado errato), che l'uomo è in grado di compiere grandi spostamenti (nel testo citato si fa riferimento ai nomadi dei deserti dell'Asia, che compiono attraversate di centinaia di chilometri solo per andare a stringere la mano e salutare i visitatori provenienti dall'Europa) per qualunque genere di motivo, ed è grazie a questa mobilità se riesce a sopravvivere anche in zone veramente poco ospitali. L'ultima parte (diciamo a 4/5 di testo) è stata la mia preferita, in quanto discute dei ritrovamenti archeologi dell'area (tra cui degli antichissimi scacchi - che si presume proveniente dall'India, come gioco, del 600 d.C.).
January 23, 2020
What an amazing story and at ~270 pages told at just the right level of detail for a reader like me with a passing, not passionate, interest in history and archeology. An incredible story of happenstance and persistence with very old documentation, combined with new friends at JPL with shuttle & satellite imaging access. And one of Nicholas Clapp's best choices ever: developing a relationship with archeologist Juris Zarins (a Cornhusker alum '67, I just learned from some extra web searching!). However, many other relationships and hours of study and solving puzzles to put together the pieces of history associated with this place paid off handsomely.
I learned a lot about the geography of this part of the world (Oman & Yemen), particularly the area of Salalah and inland, the Dhofr Mountains. I also learned about the harvesting of frankincense the and the rise and fall of its trade.
The four seasons the teams studied this area uncovered an unbelievable quantity of artifacts associated with human presence from the beginning of mankind, including Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Neolithic eras. Making anything, say in the 2000 BC time, almost recent.
I learned a lot about the geography of this part of the world (Oman & Yemen), particularly the area of Salalah and inland, the Dhofr Mountains. I also learned about the harvesting of frankincense the and the rise and fall of its trade.
The four seasons the teams studied this area uncovered an unbelievable quantity of artifacts associated with human presence from the beginning of mankind, including Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Neolithic eras. Making anything, say in the 2000 BC time, almost recent.
January 7, 2021
Excellent book.
I read about this book in another archaeological book I read in 2018 on South American jungles- The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston. This is the groundbreaking archaeological exploration where space technology has been used successfully for the first time for archaeological research.
I am interested in Arabia because of my interest in my religion Islam. I am reading all that I can find on the history of the region to get a better picture of the land, people and their lives.
In fact I am secretly hoping to find clues about secret Real Qur'an manuscripts hidden in the vault of a broken old building, untold stories about the Prophet SA, or that there was no such Prophet or Qur'an etc.
Nicholas Clapp is witty, maverick and a risk taker. A single book he read once changed the course of his life, took 15 years of his life away. Not many would have that sort of courage.
His reading list impressed me, it probably includes all literature on southern Arabia.
Nicholas Clapp himself expressed doubt about his success of the mission, did he or did he not discover the ancient city of Ubar at Shishur...
I read about this book in another archaeological book I read in 2018 on South American jungles- The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston. This is the groundbreaking archaeological exploration where space technology has been used successfully for the first time for archaeological research.
I am interested in Arabia because of my interest in my religion Islam. I am reading all that I can find on the history of the region to get a better picture of the land, people and their lives.
In fact I am secretly hoping to find clues about secret Real Qur'an manuscripts hidden in the vault of a broken old building, untold stories about the Prophet SA, or that there was no such Prophet or Qur'an etc.
Nicholas Clapp is witty, maverick and a risk taker. A single book he read once changed the course of his life, took 15 years of his life away. Not many would have that sort of courage.
His reading list impressed me, it probably includes all literature on southern Arabia.
Nicholas Clapp himself expressed doubt about his success of the mission, did he or did he not discover the ancient city of Ubar at Shishur...
December 30, 2019
Nicholas Clapp
The Road to Urbar
16 March 2003
This was a fascinating book, good detective story. It contains lots of interesting facts, a gripping chase and a very pleasing way of tying information together.
Pace is maintained and if you are interested in archaeology and the Middle East you'll be interested. It is not a heavy tome, written more as a tale than an academic analysis.
Since I don’t really watch the titles on TV or at the cinema I don’t know the name, but if his documentaries are as well structured as this book they would be interesting to watch.
Note 2011:
This is an archaeological adventure story, based on a real exploration by M Clapp.
The Road to Urbar
16 March 2003
This was a fascinating book, good detective story. It contains lots of interesting facts, a gripping chase and a very pleasing way of tying information together.
Pace is maintained and if you are interested in archaeology and the Middle East you'll be interested. It is not a heavy tome, written more as a tale than an academic analysis.
Since I don’t really watch the titles on TV or at the cinema I don’t know the name, but if his documentaries are as well structured as this book they would be interesting to watch.
Note 2011:
This is an archaeological adventure story, based on a real exploration by M Clapp.
September 14, 2021
La storia di una ricerca archeologica che parte da lontano, da un progetto di reinserimento ambientale degli orici (una specie di antilopi) nell'Oman e nell'area meridionale della penisola arabica.
Da qui, e dalle immagini via satellite che rivelavano tracce di antiche vie carovaniere, si risale all'intersezione di queste e alla scoperta di un sito identificato con la mitica Iram, la città dalle mille colonne.
Certo, nel racconto della scoperta resta il dubbio se questo piccolo forte potesse davvero essere Iram e non uno dei suoi avamposti, ma anche questo fa parte del fascino della ricerca.
4 stelle
Da qui, e dalle immagini via satellite che rivelavano tracce di antiche vie carovaniere, si risale all'intersezione di queste e alla scoperta di un sito identificato con la mitica Iram, la città dalle mille colonne.
Certo, nel racconto della scoperta resta il dubbio se questo piccolo forte potesse davvero essere Iram e non uno dei suoi avamposti, ma anche questo fa parte del fascino della ricerca.
4 stelle
October 14, 2023
This is a non-academic history, of the finding and discovery of Ubar, in the South West of Oman in the early 1990s. The author, a documentary producer, and his partner decided on a whim to chase the fabled city. And perhaps to everyone's astonishment they found both the city and a great deal more archeological history dating back to the neolithic and paleolithic era.
The book feels a bit padded out to me, but his writing is clear, and his description of the archeology over a five year period is useful.
FWIW I think this was the first time space photography was used to aid, and in fact direct, an archeological dig.
The book feels a bit padded out to me, but his writing is clear, and his description of the archeology over a five year period is useful.
FWIW I think this was the first time space photography was used to aid, and in fact direct, an archeological dig.
February 28, 2020
I remember reading or hearing about this discovery in the early 90s but, like today, the news was full of despots and dictators so important discoveries in archaeology and science were relegated to "in other news". When I found this book in a thrift store I immediately bought it. This is a real-life adventure story about dreams, patience, hardship and discovery with myth and imagination filling it out. Nicholas Clapp is a true rawi (ancient Arab storyteller) whose book is not only readable, detailed and comprehensible but magical.
December 20, 2023
Read the Koran and came across the prophet HUD who warned the city of Ubar to be less arrogant and stop their polytheistic beliefs. The city was leveled. I came across this book as I was researching the story and was extremely pleased with the fast-paced, adventurous storytelling of how Clapp and his wife and crew made an attempt to confirm this story. The book is described as an Indiana Jones-esque tale and I would agree. It’s worth the read.
March 18, 2018
Some fascinating aspects in this book. Got a little slow in the first hundred pages with his endless research of myths and documents, and then again in the ending when he recreates the history of Ubar.
April 18, 2025
Broken up into three parts, I thought the first two were great, but it lost my interest a bit in the third, as it pivots away from the expedition and more into the history of the city. Which isn't a problem, but I was reading more for the expedition side of things.
December 7, 2020
Second time reading it. It is interesting to read about an archeological search when written by an amateur who is really a documentary film maker. I enjoyed it again.
December 18, 2022
Read like a travel adventure with bits of their research thrown in. A bit dated feeling, like the Indiana Jones mindset of archeology was still well in effect.
July 22, 2024
Interesting, but a slog.
June 25, 2024
I thoroughly enjoyed this rousing tale of what nerdery and the right book can lead to: the excavation of an ancient lost city! Armed with nothing more than a fascination with Omani legends and a "dare to be stupid," the author enlists unlikely friends at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the British gentry, all of whom eventually lead an expedition to find the lost city of Ubar. It says something that the author made delving into libraries (the better part of any archeological research, probably more so than digging in the dirt) just as exciting as encountering bedouins in the harshess of the Omani desert.
June 5, 2024
Che dire, pensavo fosse un libro di speculazioni su una fantomatica città nel deserto del Rub' Al-Khali da parte di un tizio con molta immaginazione e invece è un effettivo resoconto, un diario di della ricerca vittoriosa della città di Ubar.
Grandissimo conoscitore della cultura esplorativa dell'arabia cita grandi esploratori (C.M Doughty, T.E. Lawrwnce ecc...), alcuni a me noti altri piacevolmente nuovi come B. Thomas, e trova le tracce nei loro racconti della presenza ei Ubar, passando da chi la cita appena a chi, come Thomas, crede di averne effettivamente trovato le coordinate.
Inoltre meravigliosa la parte nella quale utilizza antiche mappe, racconti, testi e miti per trovare il sito della città, un processo effettivamente alla indiana jones ma che a modo suo era efficacie e non così ciarlatano.
SPOILER
Metto un allerta spoiler anche se nessuno leggera questo commento, apparte forse quel babbuino di Davide, la città di Ubar che loro cercano nel quarto vuoto (il deserto) poi viene effettivamente trovata molto più a sud e in una zona già abitata, quindi si una scoperta poi non così allettante come era stata "impacchettata", ma comunque una grande scoperta degna di nota.
Anche se alla fine diventa un po ripetitivo e pesantuccio, è veramente un bel libro per chi si interessa all'argomento.
Grandissimo conoscitore della cultura esplorativa dell'arabia cita grandi esploratori (C.M Doughty, T.E. Lawrwnce ecc...), alcuni a me noti altri piacevolmente nuovi come B. Thomas, e trova le tracce nei loro racconti della presenza ei Ubar, passando da chi la cita appena a chi, come Thomas, crede di averne effettivamente trovato le coordinate.
Inoltre meravigliosa la parte nella quale utilizza antiche mappe, racconti, testi e miti per trovare il sito della città, un processo effettivamente alla indiana jones ma che a modo suo era efficacie e non così ciarlatano.
SPOILER
Metto un allerta spoiler anche se nessuno leggera questo commento, apparte forse quel babbuino di Davide, la città di Ubar che loro cercano nel quarto vuoto (il deserto) poi viene effettivamente trovata molto più a sud e in una zona già abitata, quindi si una scoperta poi non così allettante come era stata "impacchettata", ma comunque una grande scoperta degna di nota.
Anche se alla fine diventa un po ripetitivo e pesantuccio, è veramente un bel libro per chi si interessa all'argomento.
February 8, 2017
1998
Rhonda had this book when I visited her in Oman. FUn to read there, as it starts right off mentioning flying into and over Oman.
Rhonda traveled to Dhofar and visited not Ubar but Job's tomb, which is not far away.
After experiencing Wahiba Sands here [for one day] it is all the more interesting to read about saw ancient cities and caravan routes into and through the great sand deserts of Arabia.
Also, we stopped at a large sinkhole on the coast north of Sur that perhaps shows a little how a city like Ubar could have just fallen into the earth [due to pumping up of too much underground water].
Very interesting that the man preaching at the people of Ubar was called Hud [in the oral and written legends] which means Jew, so Clapp concludes that Ubar had a Jewish king at one time. Clapp mentions the dispersion of Jews after the Babylonian captivity [6c BC] to all parts of Arabia and elsewhere, and also Christians were scattered around the Peninsula [before the time of Islam]. I had always wondered about that.
He also mentions a well=attended pilgrimage that takes place annually to Hud's tomb, 50 miles east of Tarim, saying it is the largest ARabian pilgrimage after Mecca, and that it surely predates Islam by a long ways.
Rhonda had this book when I visited her in Oman. FUn to read there, as it starts right off mentioning flying into and over Oman.
Rhonda traveled to Dhofar and visited not Ubar but Job's tomb, which is not far away.
After experiencing Wahiba Sands here [for one day] it is all the more interesting to read about saw ancient cities and caravan routes into and through the great sand deserts of Arabia.
Also, we stopped at a large sinkhole on the coast north of Sur that perhaps shows a little how a city like Ubar could have just fallen into the earth [due to pumping up of too much underground water].
Very interesting that the man preaching at the people of Ubar was called Hud [in the oral and written legends] which means Jew, so Clapp concludes that Ubar had a Jewish king at one time. Clapp mentions the dispersion of Jews after the Babylonian captivity [6c BC] to all parts of Arabia and elsewhere, and also Christians were scattered around the Peninsula [before the time of Islam]. I had always wondered about that.
He also mentions a well=attended pilgrimage that takes place annually to Hud's tomb, 50 miles east of Tarim, saying it is the largest ARabian pilgrimage after Mecca, and that it surely predates Islam by a long ways.
January 5, 2015
Answers questions raised by Bertram Thomas's excellent Arabia Felix (1932). This is a non-scholarly (quasi-scholarly? Clapp has no pretensions to being a scholar -- he is a documentary filmmaker -- but his research is thorough and borders on the scholarly) account of the 1990s excavations at Shisur in Oman, and what was found there.
A fully convincing answer to the questions of "Did Ubar exist?" and "Where was it?". Scholarly and specialist accounts have been published by Juris Zarins and others, so this book fills a nice niche for the general reader. If prehistoric and ancient Southern Arabia interests you, this is a good book.
I found Clapp's voice and sometimes-folksy tone to be a bit grating at times, but he is a thorough-going adventurer and his work instigated the satellite mapping and the eventual expeditions that discovered this important (and very interesting) ancient site, so his personal writing style can be excused.
A fully convincing answer to the questions of "Did Ubar exist?" and "Where was it?". Scholarly and specialist accounts have been published by Juris Zarins and others, so this book fills a nice niche for the general reader. If prehistoric and ancient Southern Arabia interests you, this is a good book.
I found Clapp's voice and sometimes-folksy tone to be a bit grating at times, but he is a thorough-going adventurer and his work instigated the satellite mapping and the eventual expeditions that discovered this important (and very interesting) ancient site, so his personal writing style can be excused.
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