The City of Ubar — Arabia’s Atlantis Revisited

Ubar is a legendary Arabian settlement associated with Iram of the Pillars, the Empty Quarter, and the ancient frankincense trade. Satellite and radar imagery helped researchers identify old caravan routes converging near Shisr in Oman, where excavations revealed a fortified oasis built around a vital water source. Although widely announced as the discovery of Ubar, Shisr was probably a modest but important caravan station rather than a vast lost metropolis. Ubar may have been a city, a region, or a collection of traditions based on several abandoned settlements. The investigation reveals how archaeology, remote sensing, trade history, and legend can combine to reconstruct the forgotten human landscape of ancient Arabia.