Khor Rori Expedition September 2006 A return to Nephis Harbor with George Potter & Friends

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. DAY ONE Locating Flint Quarry Near Khor Rori

DAY TWO Entire Team Surveys Flint Quarry

Jim Anderson with Flint Node

Rough seas near quarry indicate why Nephi needed a protected harbor in which to build and launch his ship. In foreground Gatis Senkans Family (LDS Members from Latvia)

Ali Al-Sharhi Author of Rock Art of Dhofar & The Language of Aad shows us his personal museum DAY THREE Rock art of ships and wadi Darbat above Khor Rori

Frankincense Tree In yard of Dhofari historian and archaeologist Ali Al-Shahri

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)

Ali Shahri leads our team to caves above Khor Rori.

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

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

Honey Cave Actual name is the Cave of the Snakes

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

Stick in side of cave indicates where honey was gathered.

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.

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.

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

DAY FOUR Nephi Project Returns to Nephis Harbor at Khor Rori (Refer to our film Discovering Nephi Harbor)

Our guide was Saeed Al-Mashori, Supervisor for Khor Rori Excavations for the Archaeological Park.

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

Iron smelting slag In Sumhuram fortress at Khor Rori.

Saeed pointed out the ancient ways and moorings 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.

Jim Anderson, Garth Norman, Frank Lewandowski and Wayne Shurtliff inspect an ancient way and mooring.

Saeed indicated that the fields and orchards that once supported the harbor city were located near this fresh water stream.

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.

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.

Diane Shurtliff served as our guide through the remains of the city of al-Balíd.

Remains of a huge mosque (120 pillars), indicate the wealth of the area even up to medieval times.