'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎242] (291/552)

242
DHOFAR AND THE GARA MOUNTAINS
Yakut, for example, tells us how the Prince of Zufar had
the monopoly of the frankincense trade, and punished with
death any infringement of it. Ibn Batuta says that * half a
day's journey east of Mensura is Alakhaf, the abode of the
Addites,' probably referring to the site of the oracle and the
last stronghold of the ancient cult.
Sprenger sums up the evidence of old writers by saying
that the town of Zufar and the later Mansura must un
doubtedly be the ruins of A1 Balad. Thus, having assured
ourselves of the locality of the ancient capital of the frank
incense country—for no other site along the plain has ruins
which will at all compare in extent and appearance with those
of A1 Balad—we shall, as we proceed on our journey, find that
other sites fall easily into their proper places, and an
important verification of ancient geography and an old-world
centre of commerce has been obtained.
The ruins at A1 Balad and Eobat were last inhabited
during the Persian occupation, about the time of the
Crusades, 500 of the Hejira. They utilised the old Himya-
ritic columns to build their mosques. Some of the tombs
have beautiful carving on them.
In the ruins of one temple the columns were elaborately
carved with a kind of fleur-de-lis pattern, and the bases
decorated with a floral design, artistically interwoven.
I had dreadful difficulty with a photograph which I took
of these columns. I developed it at night, tormented by
mosquitoes, and in the morning it was all cracked and dried
off its celluloid foundation. I put it in alum, and it floated
off half an inch too large in both directions. If I had had a
larger plate on which to mount it, it would have been an
easy enough job, but I had not, so I was obliged to work it
down on to the original plate with my thumbs. It took
me seven solid hours, and I had to be fed with two meals,
for I could never move my thumbs nor eyes off my work.