Host's View Centuries ago, camel caravans trekked across the Arabian peninsula, laden with frankincense, bound for the Mediterranean. Treasured as an incense, this aromatic sap of the frankincense tree was, of course, one of the gifts of the three Magi. In our series on the frankincense route, we join the Savvy Traveler's Tom Verde as he picks up the trail in the deserts of the southern Arabian peninsula. On The Frankincense Trail Part Three by Tom Verde Visit this page on Tuesday, December 19 to listen with RealAudio.
Most drivers try to avoid ending up in the middle of nowhere.
I, on the other hand was headed straight for it, a place called the Rub' al Khali, the world's largest sand desert . It's a terrifying expanse of nothingness the size of France, whose name means simply the Empty Quarter. You'll find it in the atlas straddling the border between Saudi Arabia and Oman - the undemarcated border, in the parlance of cartographers. It's a nebulous, dotted line in the sand that nobody really cares about, because nobody in his right mind goes near it . . . My destination was the fabled lost city of Ubar, a major frankincense trading center that, according to the Koran, was swallowed up by the sands after its people turned their backs on God .