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The Koran (e.g., Sura 89 ) describes Iram as a city built by the tribe of Ad that was destroyed by Allah because of the sins of its inhabitants. The ruins of the city lie buried somewhere in the sands of the Rub' al Khali. Iram (alternately spelled Irem) became known to Western literature with the translation of the Arabian Nights and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In the realm of contemporary fiction, the city is alluded to in the tales of H. P. Lovecraft.
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 more recent discovery occurred when archaeologists examined photographs taken of the Persian Gulf Coast from the space shuttle Challenger in 1984. These photos revealed a number of buried cities along the ancient frankincense trade route dating from 2800 BC and 100 BCCenturies: 2nd century BC 1st century BC 1st century Decades: 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC Years: 105 BC 104 BC 103 BC 102 BC 101 BC 100 BC 99 BC 98 BC 97 BC 96 BC 95 BC Events Tigranes II of Armenia is placed on Arme. One, located on the eastern edge of OmanThe Sultanate of Oman is a country in the southwestern part of Asia, on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders the United Arab Emirates in the northwest, Saudi Arabia in the west, and Yemen in the southwest. The coast is formed by the Ar in the Dhofar Province , proved to be a city known as UbarUbar was a near-legendary trading city that thrived on the frankincense trade hundreds of years before the time of Jesus Christ, at the edge of the Rub' al Khali desert of Arabia. It may have been the same as the legendary city of Irem. In the district of, which is usually identified with Iram.