Once thought to be a never-ending stretch of sand, the Rub’ al-Khali in the Middle East has revealed an incredible secret. 23 years ago, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was flying over the desert when he spotted an unusual sand dune forming and a large black deposit.
This led to the amazing discovery of Saruq Al-Hadid, an archaeological site now believed to be part of a 5,000-year-old civilisation that once lived in the region. Researchers at the archaeological site have found traces of the settlement some 10 feet beneath the surface, one that was rich in remnants of copper and iron smelting.
The Rub’ al-Khali – also known as the “Empty Quarter” – spans more than 250,000 square miles, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. This makes it the world’s largest expanse of continuous sand.
There has been a long-standing myth about a city in the region, known as “Atlantis of the Sands”. According to legend, the city of Ubar was buried beneath the sand after being destroyed, either by a natural disaster or as a punishment by the gods. It earned its nickname through T.E. Lawrence, the British officer and writer best known for his role in the Arab Revolt during World War One.
Cutting-edge technology was then employed to discover what lies beneath the dunes without disturbing them.
Researchers from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi employed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology, which they combined with high-resolution satellite images to explore underneath the sand. The radar detected buried structures with clear signs of metal structures, artefacts and layers of animal bones in what archaeologists call midden deposits.
The researchers determined that the patterns and shapes identified pointed to ancient human activity. The findings suggest a complex, interconnected society that existed thousands of years ago.
“With the climate, plus the fact that a lot of the country is desert, it was too logistically challenging to survey the desert on the ground,” said Khalifa University’s head of Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Lab, Dr Diana Francis, according to MailOnline. “That’s why satellite imagery was crucial. We needed equipment that could look under the sand.”
The Arabian Desert has been inhabited since the early Ice Age, with Neolithic and Paleolithic tools found in the southwest Rub’ al-Khali. Those who lived in the region adapted to desert life, focusing on camel herding and date farming. While now a hyper-arid environment, the region experienced periods of increased humidity between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago, with increased rainfall resulting in shallow lakes which supported plants, animals and algae.
“The case study of the Saruq Al-Hadid site illustrates the potential of these technologies to enhance archaeological surveys and contribute to heritage conservation efforts,” said the research published in the journal.
