How archaeological discoveries in AlUla and Khaybar are unearthing Saudi Arabia’s prehistoric past

A Neolithic mustatil next to a Bronze Age pendant burial in Kaybar. (Supplied/Mat Dalton)
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Updated 19 August 2022
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How archaeological discoveries in AlUla and Khaybar are unearthing Saudi Arabia’s prehistoric past

  • Thousands of structures, most between 4,000-7,000 years old, have been found in the Kingdom’s northwest
  • The discoveries are the key to a radical rethinking of the prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula

LONDON: To the bedouin, the mysterious structures of uncertain age and unknown origin scattered across the harsh and dramatic landscapes of northwestern Saudi Arabia have always been simply the works of “the old men.”

To the archaeologists who have just completed a four-year project to catalogue all the visible archaeology of AlUla County and the nearby Harrat Khaybar volcanic field, the tens of thousands of structures they have found, most between 4,000 and 7,000 years old, are the key to a radical rethinking of the prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula.

“A lot of the archaeological focus in the region in the past has been on the Fertile Crescent, running through Jordan, Israel and up into Syria and beyond, and little archaeological attention has been paid to this early material of Saudi Arabia,” said archaeologist Dr. Hugh Thomas, a senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia.

“But as we do more and more research, we’re realizing that there was so much more here than small, independent, communities living on nothing much and not doing much in an arid area.

“The reality in that in the Neolithic period these areas were significantly greener, and there would have been really sizeable populations of people and herds of animals moving across these landscapes.”

In the near future, he believes, “I think we are going to make massive discoveries that are going to change how we view the Middle East completely.”

Dr. Thomas is co-director of the Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia project, set up in 2018 by the Royal Commission for AlUla, as part of the Identification and Documentation of the Immovable Heritage Assets of AlUla program. The following year the project was expanded to include the neighboring, heritage-rich region of Khaybar.

A “core” area of AlUla of 3,300 sq. m was surveyed separately by UK-based Oxford Archaeology. Working with staff and students of King Saud University in Riyadh, they identified more than 16,000 archaeological sites.

Setting out initially to survey the AlUla hinterland, an area of more than 22,500 square kilometers, Dr. Thomas and his colleagues faced a daunting task, which they broke down into three stages.

A remote preliminary survey of the entire area, using satellite imagery, was followed by aerial photography of selected sites and, finally, excavation of a small number of the most promising structures.

The first stage lasted more than a year, with team members poring painstakingly over Google Earth and other satellite imagery and pinning every structure they spotted.

For the University of Western Australia team back in Perth, it meant “hour after hour of patiently scrolling through,” Dr. Thomas said.

“Sometimes it was in areas where there was absolutely nothing, just endless kilometers of remote desert. But then at other times you’d find structures all over the place, and you would get through only a few kilometers in a session, because you were constantly finding and pinning new archaeological sites.”

The hard work paid off handsomely.

By the end, they had identified 13,000 sites in AlUla and an extraordinary 130,000 in Khaybar county, dating from the Stone Age to the 20th century. They logged everything they saw, including some of the remains of the Hejaz railway, built by the Ottomans before World War I, but the vast majority of the sites dated from prehistory.

Each site consisted of anything from one structure to clusters of 30 or more, and they have now catalogued more than 150,000 individual structures of archaeological interest, especially in the Khaybar region, where there is “a really dense, significant concentration of archaeological remains.”

After the remote sensing came the really fun part — flying low over the spectacular landscapes of AlUla and Khaybar in helicopters, using open-door photography to record sites previously identified by the satellite survey as being of particular interest.

The pilots, from the Saudi-based The Helicopter Company, flew from site to site along flight paths created by the archaeologists.




Archaeological discoveries in AlUla and Khaybar are the key to unlocking the secrets of prehistoric Saudi Arabia. (Moath Alofi)

“They were commercial pilots who at first had no idea about the archaeology,” Dr. Thomas said. “But they were very keen, and also pretty good at interpreting and spotting things.

“They ended up having a really great understanding, and that was so beneficial to the project. I could say, ‘I’m after three funerary pendants up on an outcrop’, and the pilot would say, ‘Oh, I can see them, in front of us,’ and they’d steer the helicopter round to give you the best photographic angle.”

By the end, he said, “some of the pilots would have seen more archaeology up close than the majority of archaeologists.”

The last aerial photography was carried out in March this year and, by then, the team had captured more than a quarter of a million images across AlUla and Khaybar.

Among the structures they photographed were more than 350 examples of one of the most extraordinary types of large-scale structures scattered across Saudi Arabia’s prehistoric landscape — the mysterious mustatil.

Mustatil is the Arabic word for rectangle, and these often huge, rectangular structures, built by an unknown people more than 8,000 years ago, may be unique to the Arabian peninsula.

More than 1,600 are now known to exist across 300,000 sq. km of northwestern Saudi Arabia, concentrated mainly in the vicinity of AlUla and Khaybar.

Mustatils vary in type — some are more complex than others — but usually they consist of two parallel walls, or occasionally more, joined at either end by shorter walls to create a rectangle. They range in length from 20 to 620 meters and often they are clustered together, in groups numbering anything from two to 19.




Of the 1,600 mustatils identified via satellite imagery and the 350 photographed from the air, 39 were selected for ground survey by Thomas’ team. (Rebecca Repper)

In some places, mustatils have been “overbuilt” by subsequent generations who have constructed circular ringed tombs, or so-called pendant tombs, on or very near them.

Building some of the mustatils would have been a big commitment for a considerable number of people. The largest structure ground-surveyed by the AAKSA team, situated on the Harrat Khaybar lava field 50 km south of Khaybar town, was built from basalt boulders and measures 525m in length.

It is estimated that the structure weighs about 12,000 tons, with individual stones weighing between 6 and 500 kg.

Extrapolating from experimental studies carried out on Mayan structures in Guatemala, the archaeologists have estimated that it would have taken a group of 10 people two or three weeks to build a mustatil more than 150m long. Larger structures, up to 500m, could have been constructed by a group of 50 people in about two months.

As Dr. Thomas and his colleagues wrote in a paper published recently in the journal “Antiquity,” not only are mustatils “an important component of the ancient Arabian cultural landscape,” they are also among the earliest stone monuments in Arabia, and “globally one of the oldest monumental building traditions yet identified.”

Of the 1,600 mustatils identified via satellite imagery and the 350 photographed from the air, 39 were selected for ground survey by Thomas’ team. Of these, just a handful were excavated, and these have revealed a wealth of previously unknown information.

In late 2018 and 2019, for example, archaeologists from both the UWA and Oxford teams began excavating undisturbed mustatils east of AlUla valley, and discovered evidence that the structures had served a ritual purpose. Collections of horns and other cranial bone fragments, from animals including cattle, goat and gazelle, were found in chambers in the structures, which could suggest offerings had been made to some long-forgotten deity.

“These are ritual structures, I’d bet my house on it,” Dr. Thomas said.

“We have now excavated five of them, the Oxford Archaeology team has excavated three, and other teams are excavating others too. With the artefacts that are inside, and also the construction techniques that are involved in creating them, there is no practical function for these structures, other than ritual, that would make any sense.”




In addition to Mustatils, there are an estimated 917 kites around Khaybar built in varying shapes and sizes and some dating back to between the fifth and seventh centuries B.C. (Moath Alofi)

There is no roofing, the walls are too low for them to have been used for keeping animals in them, and some of them are built on the slopes of mountains that are incredibly steep and difficult to walk up.

Organic remains can be carbon-dated, and the animal bones revealed that the site was late Neolithic – about 7,000 years old. In the past season, however, in a collaboration with the archaeology department at Durham University in the UK, the team has been employing another sophisticated dating technique called Optically Stimulated Luminescence.

This, Dr. Thomas said, “basically allows you to date the last time that sand had light fall directly upon it, which is a really useful technique for dating structures that don’t have any kind of organic deposits within them.”

So far, nothing has been unearthed to suggest why the mustatils were built where they were.

“In some of the locations where we find them we just can’t understand why they were built there,” Dr. Thomas said.

“They might be in a random valley with seemingly not much happening around them. It suggests that people are coming to that spot, creating them, then moving on and probably coming back periodically.”

That, of course, poses the question: what was so special about these sites to these people?

Another, possibly connected, mystery is that the mustatils and even the later Bronze Age burial structures in the region were clearly built to be appreciated not from ground level, but from up above, in the sky.

“What’s fascinating is when you see them from the ground, they’re not that spectacular, just a series of walls,” Dr. Thomas said.

“But as soon as you get in a helicopter, or you look at it on satellite imagery, these things just come to life.”

One theory is that the structures might have been built to be viewed from above by the dead. Another possibility is that they were ritual structures constructed for the benefit of some deity in the sky.

But, as the structures were built long before human beings developed writing, the truth is likely to remain a mystery.

Equally mysterious is where the people came from who built the mustatils — and where they ended up. As yet, no Neolithic burial sites from the same period have been found.




Archaeologist Don Boyer measures a tower of stones next to a 525m long Mustatil in Khaybar. (David Kennedy)

“The hope is that, in the future, we might identify some Neolithic burials,” Dr. Thomas said. “But the reality now is that we’re not sure where the people of the Neolithic are.”

They could have been buried in unmarked graves at random sites, which would make it very hard to find any of them.

“Alternatively, there may be other things that they did to their bodies, which means that we will never find them.”

However, a series of finds in some mustatils has hinted at a perhaps macabre practice in about the mid-fifth millennium BC. Some human remains have been found — but only fragments.

“In one, we found part of a foot and five vertebrae and a couple of long bones. We can tell that while there was still soft tissue attached and holding the bones together, fragments of that body were taken and placed within this mustatil, or next to it.”

There are, however, multiple burial sites in the region — and sometimes close to mustatils — from the Bronze Age, dating from about 2,500 years later. 

“There are thousands upon thousands of tombs, pendant burials and larger monumental tombs in the region, indicating that there were large, thriving populations here,” Dr. Thomas said.

The most dramatic examples are located in Khaybar county, to the southeast of AlUla.

“Projecting out of Bronze Age oases are these long pathways, funerary avenues, flanked by thousands of tombs, creating a really significant funerary landscape.”

The next objective for the team is “to focus on this shifting idea of monumentality. In the Neolithic period, for whatever reason, something occurred that meant that people started creating these absolutely massive ritual structures, over a 300 to 500-year period.

“Then it stopped. Archaeologically, from about 4,800 down to about 2600 BC, we find very little — some domestic structures, but not many graves.




In addition to the mustatils, the site has kites whose geometric shapes may be connected or unconnected to each other. They may be part of a building or separate, or stone piles. (Duhim Alduhim)

“Then suddenly these monumental burials start appearing across the landscape. Why this shift from the mustatil, monumental ritual structures, to the focus 2,000 years later on the individual, or family groups, that were being buried in these structures?

“What happened in those few thousand years?”

Whatever the answer, the vast number of mustatils identified — about 1,600 in an area roughly the size of Poland — not only puts Saudi Arabia’s ancient past in a Neolithic class of its own, but has global repercussions.

“When we look at Neolithic landscapes across the world, often you’re only finding a handful of structures, less than a dozen,” Dr. Thomas said.

“So to have something like the mustatil, where you’ve got well over 1,000, covering such a significant area, really changes how we have to view the Neolithic.

“It indicates that the Neolithic is much more complex than we originally thought.

“And, as more research comes out about the mustatil, I think that will completely revolutionize how we view Neolithic societies, not just in Arabia but across the rest of the world.”

There will be 12 archaeological teams at work in the field this autumn, exploring the past cultures of AlUla and Khaybar from prehistory to the early 20th century. Stone structures of the late prehistoric period will remain a key focus.

 


What is the Hajj pilgrimage and what is Eid Al-Adha? Why are they significant for Muslims?

Updated 03 June 2025
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What is the Hajj pilgrimage and what is Eid Al-Adha? Why are they significant for Muslims?

  • Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia and involves a series of religious rituals
  • It is also one of the Five Pillars of Islam, in addition to the profession of faith, prayer, almsgiving and fasting

Once a year, large numbers of Muslim pilgrims converging on Saudi Arabia unite in religious rituals and acts of worship as they perform the Hajj, one of the pillars of Islam. They fulfill a religious obligation, immersing themselves in what can be a spiritual experience of a lifetime for them and a chance to seek God’s forgiveness and the erasure of past sins.
Here’s a look at the pilgrimage and its significance to Muslims.
What is the Hajj?
The Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia and involves a series of religious rituals. It’s required once in a lifetime of every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to make it. Some Muslims make the journey more than once.
It is also one of the Five Pillars of Islam, in addition to the profession of faith, prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.
When is the Hajj?
The Hajj occurs once a year during the lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar year. This year, the Hajj will start on June 4.
When the Hajj falls during the summer months, the intense heat can be especially challenging. Amid extremely high temperatures last year, more than 1,300 people died during the Hajj, Saudi authorities announced then. The country’s health minister said at the time that the vast majority of the fatalities were unauthorized pilgrims who walked long distances under the sun.

Muslim worshippers walk on the streets in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Makkah during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, June 2, 2025. (AFP)

What's the significance of the Hajj to Muslims?
For pilgrims, performing the Hajj fulfills a religious obligation and is also a deeply spiritual experience. It’s seen as a chance to seek God’s forgiveness for past sins, to grow closer to God and to walk in the footsteps of prophets.
Communally, the Hajj unites Muslims of diverse races, ethnicities, languages, and economic classes from around the world in performing religious rituals and acts of worshipping God at the same time and place. This leaves many feeling a sense of unity, connection, humility, and equality. Pilgrims also show up with their own personal appeals, wishes and experiences.
Many pilgrims bring with them prayer requests from family and friends that they would like to be said on their behalf.
Some spend years hoping and praying to one day perform the Hajj, or save up money and wait for a permit to embark on the trip.
Ahead of the journey, preparations may include packing various essentials for the physically demanding trip, seeking tips from those who’ve performed the pilgrimage before, attending lectures or consulting other educational material on how to properly perform a series of Hajj rituals as well as spiritually preparing oneself.

A Muslim pilgrim prays overlooking the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque complex in the holy city of Makkah before the annual Hajj pilgrimage, June 2, 2025. (AFP)

What are some of the rituals that pilgrims perform?
Pilgrims make the intention to perform the Hajj, and they enter a state of “ihram.” Being in ihram includes abiding by certain rules and prohibitions. For instance, men are not to wear regular sewn or stitched clothes that encircle the body, such as shirts, during ihram. Instead, there are simple ihram cloth garments for men; scholars say the purpose is to discard luxuries and vanity, shed worldly status symbols and immerse the pilgrim in humility and devotion to God.
A spiritual highlight of the Hajj for many is standing on the plain of Arafat, where pilgrims praise God, plead for forgiveness and make supplications. Many raise their hands in worship with tears streaming down their faces.
Other rituals include performing “tawaf,” circumambulating, or circling the Kaaba in Makkah counterclockwise seven times. The Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure, is the focal point toward which Muslims face during their daily prayers from anywhere in the world.
Among other rituals, pilgrims also retrace the path of Hagar, or Hajjar, the wife of Prophet Ibrahim, who Muslims believe ran between two hills seven times searching for water for her son.
What is Eid Al-Adha?
Eid Al-Adha, or the “Feast of Sacrifice,” is the Islamic holiday that begins on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, during the Hajj.
A joyous occasion celebrated by Muslims around the world, Eid Al-Adha marks Ibrahim’s test of faith and his willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God. During the festive holiday, Muslims slaughter sheep or cattle and distribute some meat to poor people.


Saudi Ministry of Defense deploys evacuation aircraft to safeguard pilgrims’ health during Hajj

Updated 03 June 2025
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Saudi Ministry of Defense deploys evacuation aircraft to safeguard pilgrims’ health during Hajj

  • The ministry will provide advanced ambulance services for transferring emergency patients from Hajj destinations
  • Its logistical and medical teams will oversee aerial evacuations in coordination with the Ministry of Health

MAKKAH: The Saudi Ministry of Defense will deploy a fleet of aerial evacuation aircraft to respond to emergency medical cases during this year’s Hajj season, set to start on June 4.

The ministry will provide advanced ambulance services for transferring emergency health cases from Hajj destinations to hospitals inside and outside Makkah.

An estimated 1.25 million Muslims are taking part in the Hajj pilgrimage, and between June 4-9, they will visit Makkah as well as Mina, Muzdalifah and Mount Arafat, key holy sites for pilgrims.

The ministry’s logistical and medical teams will oversee aerial evacuation operations in coordination with the Ministry of Health. Each aircraft is equipped with devices and supplies similar to a hospital’s intensive care units, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Stationed at locations near the holy sites, the aircraft will quickly respond to emergency cases to safeguard the health of pilgrims. The ministry’s announcement is part of broader health initiatives launched by Saudi authorities and companies during the Hajj season.

On Monday, Saudi authorities announced the use of drones to deliver medicines and other medical supplies to patients during Hajj, cutting delivery times from an average of one hour to just six minutes.

The initiative, covering a network of more than 136 locations at several sites, will be able to provide more than 2,000 types of medicines and other medical supplies.


Smart Hajj: How authorities are preparing for crowd control

Updated 03 June 2025
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Smart Hajj: How authorities are preparing for crowd control

  • Safeguarding pilgrims and managing their movement takes careful planning

MAKKAH: Each year, the eyes of the world turn to Makkah, where millions of pilgrims from a range of nationalities, ethnicities and cultures gather in a remarkable spiritual gathering that symbolizes the unity of Islam.

In this vast diversity and sheer scale, the foremost challenge lies in managing the movement of crowds in a brief timeframe and a geographically constrained area encompassing the Grand Mosque and the Holy Sites.

Alhough Hajj is, at its core, an act of worship, safeguarding pilgrims and managing their movements requires meticulous planning, technical precision, and close coordination between security, health, service and technology organizations.

The movement of crowds in Makkah and the Holy Sites is managed by a centralized, data-driven strategy that relies on real-time inputs from surveillance cameras, aerial monitoring and location-tracking applications. (SPA)

Preparations for this year’s season underscored Saudi Arabia’s ability to integrate advanced technologies, institutional expertise, and forward-thinking initiatives to successfully orchestrate one of the most complex logistical operations in the world.

The movement of crowds in Makkah and the Holy Sites is managed by a centralized, data-driven strategy that relies on real-time inputs from surveillance cameras, aerial monitoring and location-tracking applications.

This integrated approach allows authorities to respond effectively to emergencies, proactively reroute pedestrian flow, anticipate congestion points and guide pilgrims with precision, ensuring the seamless and dignified continuation of rituals at every stage.

Coordinating the movement of over 2 million pilgrims in such a densely concentrated setting is a remarkable global accomplishment by any standard.

Akram Jan, Crowd management expert

Crowd management expert Akram Jan spoke to Arab News about the efforts that went into organizing the Hajj season.

“Coordinating the movement of over two million pilgrims in such a densely concentrated setting is a remarkable global accomplishment by any standard,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, he said, has become a global leader in crowd management, offering valuable insights for other countries.

Crowd control for the pilgrimage includes carefully calibrated timetables, which significantly reduce congestion and enhance overall safety.

He said that such crowd control is achievable only through high-level inter-agency coordination, intensive field team training, and the ability to respond swiftly to changing conditions on the ground.

Hotelier Mohammed Hakim spoke to Arab News about how the Kingdom’s Hajj and Umrah preparations have progressed over the years.

These changes have redefined the sector, shifting it from a seasonal service model to a comprehensive, year-round industry.

He said: “It is now evident that the experience of pilgrims extends far beyond the performance of rituals; it has evolved into a comprehensive, well-orchestrated journey that meets the highest standards of service and excellence.”

“We are now in the era of ‘Smart Hajj,’ where crowds are managed through applications, meals are distributed via digital platforms, and the quality of camps and accommodations is continuously monitored through real-time sensors and data analysis,” he added.

“Pilgrim satisfaction is measured from the moment they arrive in the Kingdom until their departure, all with an unprecedented level of digital transparency.

“We are entering a new era for Hajj and Umrah — one that transcends boundaries and is no longer confined to specific seasons. It is driven by a vision of continuous growth, institutional integration, and human empowerment, moving toward a values-driven economy rooted in a deep commitment to renewal and progress.”

 


Traditional Saudi crafts adorn pilgrimage route

The billboards feature designs inspired by traditional motifs and crafts such as weaving, reflecting national identity. (SPA)
Updated 03 June 2025
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Traditional Saudi crafts adorn pilgrimage route

  • Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s largest and most interconnected road networks, facilitating pilgrim and tourist movement across the Kingdom

MAKKAH: Traditional arts and crafts through a modern visual lens can be seen along the Hijrah Road between Makkah and Madinah.

The recently completed billboard project, carried out by the Roads General Authority in collaboration with the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts, known as Wrth, aligns with the Year of Handicrafts 2025.

The billboards feature designs inspired by traditional motifs and crafts such as weaving, reflecting national identity, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.

The billboards feature designs inspired by traditional motifs and crafts such as weaving, reflecting national identity. (SPA)

Illustrations highlight the beauty of local arts and regional patterns with the aim of enriching pilgrims’ cultural experience and promoting heritage tourism.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s largest and most interconnected road networks, facilitating pilgrim and tourist movement across the Kingdom, and strengthening efforts to highlight its cultural heritage across the regions.

The Roads General Authority has also launched a “mobile sites” service on the Hijrah Road to help pilgrims if their buses break down, ensuring their comfort and safety as they travel between Makkah, Madinah and the holy sites.

The service operates 24/7 during Hajj on the Hijrah Road and can accommodate around 40 pilgrims. It includes air conditioning, rest areas, restrooms, cold beverages and meals.

 


Strict permit checks, heat safety rules in focus ahead of Hajj

Updated 03 June 2025
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Strict permit checks, heat safety rules in focus ahead of Hajj

  • The Day of Arafah, the most significant day of Hajj, falls on Thursday, June 5 this year

MAKKAH: Pilgrims without a Nusuk card will not be granted access to the Grand Mosque, the holy sites or transportation services during this year’s Hajj, Saudi authorities have said.

Speaking at a meeting with heads of official Hajj missions during the 49th Grand Hajj Symposium in Jeddah, Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq Al-Rabiah highlighted the importance of adhering to movement regulations to protect pilgrims and enhance their spiritual experience.

He described the Nusuk card as a “fundamental regulatory tool to ensure orderly performance of the pilgrimage and prevent violations,” according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Addressing concerns about extreme weather, the minister advised pilgrims to remain in their tents on the Day of Arafah from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to avoid heat-related illnesses.

He warned that uncoordinated group movements compromise safety and disrupt the flow of pilgrims.

The Day of Arafah, the most significant day of Hajj, falls on Thursday, June 5 this year.

Al-Rabiah added that pilgrims must not walk from Arafat to Muzdalifah and should use designated transport systems instead.

He said that effective crowd management and transportation plans are essential for safety and require collective compliance.

Al-Rabiah added that this Hajj season will see stricter enforcement of permit regulations, in line with the Kingdom’s commitment to a safe, organized and spiritually fulfilling pilgrimage.

The Nusuk card, issued by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, is a mandatory ID and entry pass for pilgrims and workers at the holy sites.

In addition to identification, it aids logistics, facilitates communication with Hajj missions, grants access to schedules and services, and allows pilgrims to submit feedback.

It also helps authorities monitor crowd movement and send alerts to ensure a safe and organized pilgrimage. Pilgrims receive the card through their service provider, which is responsible for its distribution.

A digital version is available via the official Nusuk app, but it does not replace the printed card, which must be carried at all times.

According to the ministry, the card expires at the end of the Hajj season, with all data erased. However, pilgrims may keep the physical card as a souvenir and proof of completing Hajj.