Saudi Noqush Initiative

The Saudi Noqush Initiative is a Saudi national initiative that specializes in rock and written inscriptions on mountains and valleys in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Heritage Commission of the Ministry of Culture launched it in November 2021. It aims to assure the cultural value of these kinds of arts and also to engage the community in searching for and discovering them in the provinces of the Kingdom. The initiative contributed to the discovery of about 3 thousand inscriptions, writings, and rock art, which were registered by the Heritage Authority in the National Antiquities Register.

The Saudi Noqush Initiative aims to raise awareness and enhance interest in rock art and written inscriptions by creating community interaction on the importance of national heritage, as well as recording and documenting these antiquities in the Heritage Commission records. The initiative also supports scientific studies and research that are useful in clarifying information about the age of these discoveries, their meanings and historical importance.

The initiative motivates experts and researchers in the heritage field, those interested in antiquities and adventure, and discovery lovers to participate by documenting the discoveries and linking them to names of whoever finds them within the initiative platforms, as well as promoting them in the media.

The Saudi Noqush initiative supports its participants by organizing exploratory trips to the places of monuments, assisting them in research and documentation, and uploading the discoveries with the names of the discoverers on an interactive digital platform, which is followed and shared by members of the community. In addition, the initiative honored those who made important discoveries about sites of rock art and written inscriptions and awarded the owners of the monument. The most prominent of them are financial and in-kind awards in cultural forums in Saudi Arabi, as per the antiquities system and the initiative’s regulations.

Through its interactive programs, the Saudi Noqush Initiative introduces the importance of inscriptions and rock art, broadcasts educational videos about these antiquities, and holds competitions that ask several questions about national heritage on its platforms, so that the winners receive prizes and rewards.

The main activities in the Saudi Noqush initiative consist of five phases: a phase to test participants' knowledge, which includes answering a number of questions; the riddles phase, which contains puzzles related to inscriptions; educational videos phase, which talks about the cultural and civilizational history of inscriptions; the phase of excursions exploration. It comes after registration in an exploratory team to document the rock inscriptions; then comes the last one, the phase of celebrating and honoring the participants who have the greatest impact in the initiative.