Al Hallaniyah ( ara, الحلانية) is the largest and most populated of the

Khuriya Muriya Islands The Khuriya Muriya Islands (also ''Kuria Muria'', ''Kooria Mooria'', ''Curia Muria'') ( ar, جزر خوريا موريا; transliterated: ''Juzur Khurīyā Murīyā'' or ''Khūryān Mūryān)'' are a group of five islands in the Arabian Sea, off t ...

, which belong to

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

. It is located in the center of the group, eight kilometers east of ''Al-Sawda'', the closest island, and the second largest of the group. The area is . The only village is located on the flat western part, with a population in the range of 100 to 150. It is reachable by boat or plane. An airstrip is located nearby. The island is generally rugged and barren, except for some

tamarix The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Ta ...

trees and a little grass on its eastern side. The central part of the island rises to

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

chimney peaks standing close together. The tallest peak reaches a height of . The east and west ends of the island terminate in comparatively low points. Ras al Hallaniyah, the summit and northern

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Joh ...

of the island, is a bold projecting bluff, high. The coast of a length of one mile on either side of this bluff consists of a

Muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million yea ...

cliff descending almost vertically to the sea. The inhabitants visit the other islands with their boats, weather permitting, to catch birds and collect eggs. Other than that, their main occupation is

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques ...

. The inhabitants speak a dialect of the Shehri (or Jibbali) language. During the Charif, from mid-May to mid-September, cold water rich of nutrients from great depths reaches the surface, bringing with it an abundance of fish. The sea is rough during that time, and the weather is windy and foggy. In early 2016, the ''International Journal of Nautical Archaeology'' released an interim report documenting the discovery and subsequent excavation of a shipwreck believed to be the Portuguese vessel ''Esmerelda''. ''Esmeralda'' foundered in 1503 while being captained by

Vicente Sodré Vicente Sodré (c. 1465 – 30 April 1503) was a 16th-century Portuguese knight of Order of Christ and the captain of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean. He was an uncle of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. Background ...

, maternal uncle of

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

, and was discovered in 1998. Although little remained of the vessel itself due to the shallow waters in which it sank, an excavation from 2013 to 2015 discovered 2,800 artifacts including an extremely rare índio

silver coin Silver coins are considered the oldest mass-produced form of coinage. Silver has been used as a coinage metal since the times of the Greeks; their silver drachmas were popular trade coins. The ancient Persians used silver coins between 612–330 ...

minted for trade with India, a dozen gold coins, a copper alloy ship's bell, stone cannonballs, and part of what is believed to be an

astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate incli ...

. In March 2019, the astrolabe has been recorded as the oldest of its kind, according to the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

References

Further reading