Iram of the Pillars

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Iram of the Pillars (Arabic: إرَم ذات العماد, Iramu ḏāt al-`imād), also called Irem, Ubar, Wabar, or the City of a Thousand Pillars, is a lost city on the Arabian Peninsula.

1 Introduction
2 Rediscovery of Ubar/Iram
3 In fiction
4 See also
5 Further Reading
6 External links

[edit] Introduction

Ubar was mentioned in ancient records, in its Arabic form "Iram", and was spoken of in folk tales as a trading center of the Rub al Khali Desert in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. It is estimated that it lasted from about 3000 B.C to the first century A.D. It became, according to legends, fabulously wealthy from trade of the coastal regions to the population centers of the middle-east and even into Europe. The city became lost to modern history, and was thought to be only a figment of mythical tales. The Qur'an says that Iram was a city inhabited by the tribe of Ad. Islamic tradition holds that the 'Ad were the great-grandchildren of Noah, the Quran, however, does not maintain this. It was a rich and decadent city, filled with wicked people who dabbled in the occult.

The Qur'an, chapter 89 (Al-Fajr), verse 6 to 13:

“

[6] Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with Ad, [7] (The people of) Iruma, possessors of lofty buildings, [8] The like of which were not created in the (other) cities, [9] And (with) Samood, who hewed out the rocks in the valley, [10] And (with) Firon, the lord of hosts, [11] Who committed inordinacy in the cities, [12] So they made great mischief therein?, [13] Therefore your Lord let down upon them a portion of the chastisement.— translated by M. H. Shakir

”

Its king Shaddad defied the warnings of the prophet Hud (in the Bible Eber or Heber) and God smote the city, driving it into the sands, never to be seen again, thus becoming a veritable Atlantis of the deserts. The ruins of the city lie buried somewhere in the sands of the Rub' al Khali. Iram (otherwise spelled Irem) became known to Western literature with the translation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

[edit] Rediscovery of Ubar/Iram

The ruins of Ubar and its collapsed well-spring

Recent discoveries have brought Iram out of the realm of myth into history.

The first came when tablets found in the archives of Ebla were found to mention Iram by name.

A most recent discovery occurred when archaeologists examined photographs taken of the Persian Gulf Coast from the space shuttle Challenger in 1984. These photos revealed some buried cities along the ancient frankincense trade route dating from 2800 BC and 100 BC. One, on the eastern edge of Oman in the Dhofar province, proved to be a city known as Ubar, which is usually identified with Iram.

In the early 1980s a group of researchers became interested in the history of Ubar. They used remote sensing satellite ground penetrating radar and Landsat program data from NASA as well as SPOT data to identify old camel train routes and the point where they converged. Excavations uncovered a fortress which protected the caravan routes and the all-important water source, which was a large limestone cavern underneath the fortress. Evidence of wide-spread trade was also found. As the Ubarites consumed the water from underground, the water table would fall, leaving the limestone roof and walls of the cavern dry. Without the buoyant support of the water, the cavern would have been in danger of collapse. It seems to have done so some time between 300-500 AD, destroying the city and covering over the water source. After this collapse, the city perished.

The camel trails were already known about, having been discovered by a previous expedition in 1953. The discovery of the ruins of Ubar was made almost by chance when the team (led by Ranulph Fiennes) decided to investigate ruins at the site of Shis'r fort which had been previously identified as dating from the 16th century. These remains turned out to be what was left of the 'Atlantis of the Sands' (a name given to it by T.E. Lawrence), Ubar (or Irum/Iram).

In reality, Ubar was not the name of the city, but the name of the region. In the 2nd century A.D. Ptolemy made a map which called the area "Iobaritae", i.e. the Ubarites. The Qur'an called them "the people of 'Ad". Later legends referred to the fabulous wealth of the city and used the region name Ubar to designate it.

[edit] In fiction

The city is alluded to in the tales of H. P. Lovecraft as being somewhere near The Nameless City.

The legend may have inspired the story of the 'accursed sietch' of Jacurutu in Frank Herbert's novel Children of Dune.

James Rollins's recent novel Sandstorm centres around Ubar and its mysteries.

Sean McMullen's story The Measure of Eternity (published in Interzone 205) is set in Ubar, describing it as the wealthiest city on earth.

Ubar may also be the source for the desert city of Miraab described in 'The Witchcraft of Ulua' by Clark Ashton Smith .

Wabar is a major part of the plot in Josephine Tey's mystery novel The Singing Sands.

In the The Legend of the Arab Astrologer, part of Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra, Iram is mentioned as a marvellous magical urban Eden that appears to sleepers that dissapears as soon as you exit the gates.

[edit] See also

Irem is also the name of a music of the Italian band "Green Man", from the album "From Irem to Summerisle"

[edit] Further Reading

Atlantis of the Sands: The Search for the Lost City of Ubar (1992) ISBN 0-451-17577-8
'Return to Sodom & Gomorrah' (1994) Charles Pellegrino an account of Lawrence's interest in Iram/Ubar, and its story