Located in Oman's southern Dhofar region, bordering Yemen, the valley is the world's largest such reserve, home to around 5,000 frankincense trees that dot the barren earth, their trunks bearing kernels that exude a distinctive woody scent.
The oil extracted from the sap of the frankincense tree is used in perfume and skincare but it is also sold as solid beads of fragrance in local markets.
The Dawkah valley is one of the rare places in the world where the Boswellia tree, from which frankincense resin is extracted, grows. Since 2000, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Land of Frankincense listing, along with Khor Rori, Al Baleed and Shisr.
With its unique earthy scent, frankincense has long been used as incense, but also in traditional medicine, and even religious rituals.
“Frankincense had roughly the same value as oil today,“ according to Ahmed al-Murshidi, who heads the Khor Rori site.
As Jaddad collected dried beads of sap from the trees, he told AFP that the type of frankincense found in the valley was the Najdi -- one of four main varieties.
“The cleaner and purer the frankincense, the more suitable it is for drinking as a treatment, while the rest is used as incense,“ he said, adding that several factories in Dhofar are specialised in frankincense skincare and oils.
'Quick to anger'
Harvesting the tree requires care and skilled craftsmanship.
“We strike the tree in specific, small spots, about five times, to preserve” the plant, said Musallam bin Saeed Jaddad, who works in the reserve.
In 2022, Amouage partnered with Omani authorities to develop the Dawkah reserve and provide jobs for the local community, only harvesting a fifth of the trees to preserve them.
A distillery is set to be built in the reserve to extract the frankincense oil, a process for now completed in France, said Mohammed Faraj Istanbuli, the reserve supervisor.
“We bring those trees... to the reserve. We have saved about 600 trees so far.”- AFP
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