Some biblical archaeologists suggest wise men traded there for frankincense they bore as gifts for the infant Jesus. The grinding sand of the Rub al Khali had defeated water-short British explorer Bertram Thomas looking for Ad's ancient trade routes in the 1930's. Today, unable to search the entire perilous desert environment, modern archaeologists have worked in their laboratories, feeding data from satellite radar pictures to computers searching for long-lost clues. A 1990 scouting expedition tracked that trail which may have been formed by frankincense traders riding camels. Atlantis of the sands.
Frankincense is an aromatic resin from the sap of Middle Eastern and East African trees.
Ages ago, it was an incense used by everyone, monarches and common folk alike, in cremations, religious rituals, ceremonies and imperial processions. Backed by wealthy businessman Armand Hammer, the Ad expedition included Blom, Elachi, British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Los Angeles attorney and part-time explorer George Hedges, and an archaeologist, geologist, computer scientist and documentary filmmaker. In the end, it was victimized by politics, economics and climate after a drop in demand for the frankincense fragrance as Christianity preached burying bodies instead of burning them. The abandoned villages of Ad eventually were inundated by tides of shifting sands. Today those dunes reach heights of 200 to 600 feet.