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Oman's Heritage: Illustrations
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"The Photography of Nicolas Sapieha"
February 13, 1998
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Photographing the land of frankincense
 | One hundred miles southwest of Muscat, this fort was built between 1670 and 1680 to protect a local oasis and trade routes passing through the regional capital of Nizwa. The fort and a weekly goat auction that attracts local bedouin are reminders of the past in an otherwise modern city. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | This contemporary onion-dome mosque was built over the tomb of Bin Ali, an eleventh-century Indian sailor who settled the area and rose to political prominence. The mosque and modern cemetery are in southern Oman outside the coastal town of Marbat. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | Entranceway leads to Nakhl Fort, 50 miles west of Muscat, once considered invulnerable by Omanis. This was the first fort Nick Sapieha and I visited and, in my mind, the trip's defining image. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | A UNESCO World Heritage site, the ruins of Bahla fort tower 165 feet above the walled oasis village of the same name 115 miles southwest of Muscat. The fort has never been restored, and substantial portions of its outer walls have collapsed. In September 1996, Omani authorities began emergency consolidation work in advance of restoration. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | Omani schoolgirls climb stairs to the ramparts of Nizwa Fort's 115-foot circular tower. Nick caught the schoolteacher's black veil in motion in a spectral vision. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | Carpenters work on the wooden hull of a dhow at a shipyard in Sur, a coastal city 210 miles south of Muscat. The advent of fiberglass vessels, which are easier to maintain, has threatened the dhow-building industry here. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | A well near the entrance to Nizwa Fort supplies water from a nearby oasis. The fort, 100 miles southwest of Muscat, was built between 1670 and 1680. It was restored in 1990. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | An inscription decorates a door in the souk of Al Sulayf, an abandoned walled and fortified town some 190 miles west of Muscat. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | Windows of a ruined manor house in the coastal town of Marbat reflect the prosperity once associated with the frankincense trade. [LARGER IMAGE] |
 | Cannon from Nakhl Fort's upper battlements pounded attackers during a tribal conflict in 1769 that badly damaged the citadel, located some 50 miles west of Muscat. [LARGER IMAGE] |
Introduction
© 1998 by the Archaeological Institute of America
www.archaeology.org/online/features/sapieha/oman/illustrations.html |
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