Posted on 12/20/2011 6:42:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv
JEDDAH: On a lonely exposed hillside a few kilometers outside the capital of Al-Jouf province, Sakkaka, stand clusters of three-meter high fingers of stone.
Etched with ancient Thamudic graffiti, these monuments to a long extinct culture have maintained their lonely vigil for six millennia. Many have fallen over and others lean at bizarre random angles.
Al-Rajajil ("the men"), the sandstone stele weighing up to five tons each, is popularly called Saudi Arabia's Stonehenge. They are possibly the oldest human monuments on the peninsula.
Some time in the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, people living in the area where Al-Jouf is today laboriously erected 54 groups of rudely trimmed stone pillars. Each group contains two to 19 pillars.
At ground level there is no immediately obvious placement of the groups. However, aerial images suggest a rough alignment to sunrise and sunset. There is no positive answer to the question why they are there. An archaeological dig over 30 years ago at the base of one set of pillars failed to turn up any bones or votive offerings, suggesting that religious motives were not the reason.
Political or astronomical reasons are a possibility, though not proven. It is possible that is a landmark for a trade route.
Al-Jouf was a significant stopover point on the trade route from Yemen to Mesopotamia. One trade route, the oldest land route in recorded history, ran from Yemen and parallel to the Red Sea coast through Madinah, Al-'Ula and Madaen Salih. It turned northeast to Al-Jouf and then north toward Damascus and Turkey.
The Arabian Peninsula and Saudi Arabia in particular has hugely rich archaeological wealth. Much can be definitively written into history, but the standing stele of Al-Rajajil remains an enigma.
(Excerpt) Read more at arabnews.com ...
The site of Rajajil (standing men) was first discovered south of Jowf, Saudi Arabia. Over thirty discrete groups of aligned pillars were recorded. Weighing over five tons each, the pillars were originally placed to observe celestial phenomena. Small-scale soundings suggested the complex dated to the early Bronze Age (third millennium B.C.)
Stone Circles In Saudi Arabia
Science Frontiers | No. 3: April 1978 | William R. Corliss
Posted on 08/25/2004 11:42:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1199778/posts
Yemeni Megaliths (Archaeology mag)
http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/yemen.html
Royal Ontario Museum (more photos)
http://www.rom.on.ca/news/keall.html
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| Saudi Arabia | Mars |
Surprised the Muslims haven’t come up with a reason to blow them up, yet.
I want to know how they moved them.
I scrolled up on the page and the bottom of that picture could just as well have been Mars.
Aliens. Practice run for the pyramids.
"And dude, the Aliens could grow buds this big!"
Neither have a problem with Triffids.
I’m sure Tim Powers could tell you exactly what they are, or were...
Read “Declare” by Tim Powers!
Pre-historic performance art?
This is the province where the Saudis recently beheaded a woman for “witchcraft.” They haven’t advanced much since the Copper Age.
More likely a means for telling what day of the year it is, so you know when it’s planting time and harvest time.
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