Arabian Avenues of the Dead
IN NORTHWEST SAUDI ARABIA, a well-worn pathway covered with red rocks wends its way from the floor of the al Wadi Oasis up to volcanic plateaus that surround the green valley. Anyone leaving the oasis by this route will soon pass a series of low stone walls radiating from circular mounds that line the path. The walls form triangles extending away from the stone cairns, enclosing areas reminiscent of courtyards. When viewed from the air, it becomes clear that the largest of these monuments are shaped like keyholes. These are one of several types of tomb that archaeologists call pendant tombs, and recent dating has shown that they were originally built in the third millennium b.c. when the region was inhabited by seminomadic Bronze Age herders. Similar structures are found from northern Syria to Yemen, but in the rocky landscape of western Saudi Arabia, such monuments are particularly abundant and take a number of distinct forms that distinguish the tombs of the region from others in the Middle East.
Since 2018, archaeologists
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