The Khaibar Oasis is located in the Great Nefud Desert in the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula. Archaeologists knew that this place was inhabited as far back as the pre-Islamic period, but in the III century BC. Millennium buildings were discovered very recently – this is because the landscape has changed so much and the oldest buildings have been covered or covered. partially destroyed by later settlements, walls and necropolises

The whole structure is simply magnificent

The large-scale study carried out by scientists of the National Center for Scientific Research and Al-Ula Royal Commission (Saudi Arabia) in 2020-2023 made it possible to discover the giant wall surrounding the entire Khyber. It wasn’t that easy to do. In addition to excavation data that made it possible to examine individual sections of defensive walls, scientists used aerial photographs to trace the remains of walls across the topography of the area, modern mapping systems, and databases collecting information from past expeditions.

In the past centuries, almost 60% of the walls were completely destroyed, but the remaining areas were enough for scientists to reconstruct the overall picture.

• The length of the wall was 14.5 kilometers.
• Height – up to 5 meters.
• Its thickness is up to 2.4 meters.
• It covered an area of ​​approximately 1,100 hectares and had 180 bastions.

No objects were found that would allow us to determine the age of the building, so we had to resort to radiocarbon analysis of coal samples taken from pits dug at the same time. As a result of complex calculations, the object dates back to B.C. It was created around 2250-1950 BC. It turned out that it was used until around 1626-1542.

The construction of the wall at that time was not a coincidence. It is associated with serious changes in the way of life of the people of the Arabian Peninsula caused by climate changes. At that time, part of the nomadic population chose a settled lifestyle, and this can be traced to previously discovered archaeological sites.

Visualization of the walls as they looked 4000 years ago / Photo by Khyber Longue Duration Archaeological Project, M. Bussy & G. Charloux

A show of force

A settled population lived in the oases of the deserts of Northern Arabia in the IV-III millennia BC. The walls surrounding the Khyber oasis are the oldest known today. This newly fortified oasis is one of the two largest oases in Saudi Arabia, along with the Taima Oasis. “This major discovery sheds light on human activities in northwestern Arabia and provides a better understanding of local social complexities in the pre-Islamic period.”
– noted in the French scientific center.

So why would such a monumental structure be created in the middle of the desert?

The first reason is obvious: the settled people defended themselves against the incursions of nomads coming from the desert. However, the object from the Khyber oasis is the first to testify to such raids in the Bronze Age for northern Arabia. At the same time, from the point of view of fortification, such a long shaft is imperfect, and from the point of view of military defense, the construction of a fortification of this form is not entirely rational.

But the wall also had other functions. Thus, it helped protect the fertile soil of the oasis from erosion, salinization and erosion.

Researchers also think social reasons are very important. The construction of such a huge structure, by the standards of that time, required a large number of people and resources, and it had to be built in a fairly short time, not taking decades. This indicates the existence of a central power in the oasis. Therefore, while the wall drew the boundaries of the controlled region, it also contributed to the formation of a common identity among the people living within its borders.