Stone Structures on Jabal al-Dhulayat

The Stone Structures on Jabal al-Dhulayat are archaeological sites located on Jabal al-Dhulayat in al-Jawf Province, north of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They were discovered by Saudi and international archaeologists, as part of the results of archaeological survey projects conducted by the Heritage Commission, in cooperation with international scientific centers.

The stone structures on Jabal al-Dhulayat are among the oldest stone structures built by humans, dating back eight to nine thousand years ago. According to PLOS ONE magazine, these massive stone structures represent animal traps, showcasing the ingenuity of ancient humans in adapting to their environment by condensing a vast area onto a limited two-dimensional surface.

Two pairs of desert stone traps were discovered on Jabal al-Dhulayat, located in al-Jawf Province, approximately 3.50 km apart. Alongside them was a miniature painting depicting a desert stone trap, drawn on a stone measuring 382 cm in length and 235 cm in width, dating back approximately eight thousand years. While other small structures resembling these massive structures had been found previously, they lacked the same level of precision observed in al-Dhulayat structures.

The stone traps were first seen in the 1920s by aircraft and were thought to be sophisticated archaeological structures, consisting of walls and stone forms more than five km long. More than six thousand structures have been discovered.