I visited this WHS in December 2020 over several days during my extended road trip in Oman and it turned out to be a real highlight of our trip which would certainly warrant a revisit to Southern Oman any time (perhaps apart from the wet Khareef season).

I visited all 4 components which make up this WHS on separate days. All 4 locations have UNESCO markers just next to their entrances. 

The first component I visited was that of Ubar after a long drive from the delisted Al Wusta Arabian Oryx Nature Reserve. I consciously decided to risk the one hour long unpaved road to the Archaeological Site of Ubar as I wanted to venture as far as possible into the Empty Quarter. The drive with a 2WD sedan car was bumpy but perfectly doable. Just make sure to have a spare tire and loads of water in your car just in case something goes wrong (you're likely to see camel skeletons along the way clearly showing what happens if you end up without water in the desert!). If you're visiting from Salalah instead of from Muscat or Duqm, there's a perfectly paved road now and it's just over an hour drive from Wadi Dawkah. On the way, just before arriving at the Ubar Archaeological Site, the green crop circles in the desert are worth a stopover. The lost city of Ubar was relatively recently discovered through high-tech satellite imagery. In total there are some 15 stone structures remaining. The lost city was built on a large limestone cavern that due to the weight of the city and earthquakes collapsed into a sinkhole (now full of bats). Recent restoration works have secured the limestone with metal pillars and concrete and information boards and a very small visitor centre try to explain the site's importance along the ancient trade routes of frankincense. The site's size and remains pale in comparison with the other cultural components of this WHS but it's still a worthy addition. It just wouldn't be a wise choice to pick this site and Wadi Dawkah only as the other two would in my opinion be worthy of inscription even on their own.

The component of the Frankincense Park of Wadi Dawkah is around 45 minutes away from Salalah and is more of a natural component which enables you to experience how frankincense is sourced. After parking your car, head down the stairs or ramp and proceed on the right where you'll notice a source of water which is used to irrigate the several frankincense trees. The handful of older frankincense trees closest to the source though are usually used to demonstrate how frankincense is tapped as the frankincense trees require around 8-10 years before they reach the production phase (some 3 to 4 kg of frankincense per season per tree!). The peak season to visit is around April when the trees are also in bloom, but if you keep you're eyes peeled, even in December-January you're likely to find some trees in bloom so that you can see all the different stages of growth. I think that a visit to the modern night market in Salalah should be of great value added to be able to see and smell the four different kinds and varying quality of Omani frankincense: Shizri, Shaabi, Nejdi and Al Hawjri - the latter supposedly being clearer, whiter and of the best quality.

While the first two components described so far require just under an hour at most to visit, the next two components require at least half a day each. The Archaeological Site of Sumhuram in the Khor Rori Nature Reserve was once the heart of the world's frankincense trade, shipping thousands of tonnes to Europe, China, India and Africa. This ancient city was once the hustle and bustle of Arabia, with merchants trading in other commodities such as silk, cotton, bronze, copper and spices. In the port there was a sea gate, a secondary entrance to the city used for goods being imported and exported. There is a vast store house complex composed of long chambers, where frankincense used to be stored before being loaded on board the ships. Inscriptions in the main huge structure give clues which indicate that the city was built to reinforce its people's control over the frankincense trade. Camels still roam around freely, much as they did some 2,000 years ago. If you have enough time, allow some time for a great hike to reach the sea on foot. You'll be rewarded with abundant birdlife and beautiful natural scenery, apart from minor archaeological remains. The minor on-site museum is worth visiting but the best artefacts found here are housed in the Museum of Frankincense near the Al Baleed Archaeological Park. I allowed repeat visits as I had plenty of time and also explored inland, on the other side of the highway, to a superb hike to Wadi Darbat waterfalls reaching the biggest waterfall which is visible from afar from the highway.

Last but not least, I did repeat visits of the Al Baleed Archaeological Park. Since there were practically no tourists around, the entrance from the great sandy beach next to the Al Baleed Resort was left open as a recent cyclone had swept away the gates. Most decorative pillars (such as the one with the fleur-de-lis decoration), stone incense burners and ornate tombstones which before were left outside have now been transferred inside the Museum of Frankincense. Still, the archaeological site is really huge and most of it still remains to be excavated and uncovered! The biggest structures you definitely won't miss are the citadel, the remains of the mosque with its many columns and nearby tombstones, and the substantial sea wall which extends for over a kilometre. There are wooden pavilions where you can have a good overview of the site while seeking some shade and a great beach to relax in after having covered enough ground. All in all, this is really a great WHS and the Dhofar region was a great surprise I managed to explore quite well thanks to the COVID-19 travel ban which meant I had to extend my holiday.