Saturday, March 13, 2010

Journey of the Jewel of Muscat



Thanks to the heads up from the Medieval News blog, I got all excited about a historic cruise that is taking place now – and is accessible on the Internet!

The Jewel of Muscat is a replica of a 9th century Arab trading vessel. The crew is sailing from Port Sultan Qaboos into the Oman Sea, down through the Arabian Sea, along the western coast of India, around Sri Lanka, across the Bay of Bengal, and through the Straits of Malacca to Singapore. It is currently off of the coast of India.

The Jewel of Muscat website is FASCINATING!!!!! It contains a log of the journey, pictures, maps, the story of the ship, a 3D image of the ship, and much more. I’d encourage our teachers to check out the Jewel of Muscat website, and follow the journey with their students.

A sample of the information shared on the site: today’s journal entry….


13th March 2010
The winds have picked up but are now blowing in the wrong direction forcing Jewel down to a crawl as she approaches Cochin.
The ship design is based on a number of resources, including the Belitung Wreck – which was discovered in 1998.

Using this website in the classroom on a regular basis could lead to increased knowledge of geography, history, economics, and the adventurist human spirit.


YouTube has an interesting summary here.

Sort of reminds me of the voyages of the Kon Tiki, the Ra, and the Icelander.



PHOTO SOURCE:

Medieval News blog


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