#arabia

[illustratus]

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Edward John Poynter

[thebellekeys]

Arabic Language

"حُرّيتي أن أكون كما لا يريدون لي أن أكون."

“My freedom is to be what they don’t want me to be.”

– Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008)

[occvltswim]

A woman at the Janadriyah Cultural Festival in Saudi Arabia

[baebeylik]

Funeral stele (fragment). Saudi Arabia, 12th to 13th Century CE.

The Louvre.

[chasingrainbowsforever]

~ Arabic Coffee ~

[renegade-hierophant]

Votive stele with Sabaean inscription adressed to the moon-god Almaqah, mentioning five South Arabian gods, two reigning sovereigns and two governors; alabaster, ca. 700 BCE, Yemen.

[cuprikorn]

[whencyclopedia]

Desert Kites

Desert Kites are mega-constructions that consist of two long walls converging upon an enclosed space that has on its periphery small stone constructions called cells. Seen from the sky, their shape suggests that of a windborne kite; they were thus called kites by pilots who flew over the arid regions of the Near East in the time of the French and British mandates of the first half of the 20th century CE. These kites combine various characteristics which in archaeology have been the object of particular research. However, most classical methods of investigation are useless because of the nature of these constructions.

In spite of many studies, kites remain a mystery in many respects, although recent research has advanced their knowledge. We are beginning to better understand their geographic extension, their age and their function, crucial questions still under discussion a short time ago. From the beginning of the 2010s CE, the access to high-resolution satellite images stimulated research by revealing that there are many more kites than were thought a few years ago. From this new data source and more classical information, multidisciplinary investigations were launched in conjunction with the organization of field expeditions.

Morphological Description

Kites are large archaeological remains, generally quite well preserved. They are dry stone constructions, composed of an enclosure and more or less continuous walls which converge towards an entrance; these walls can sometimes be absent but are usually two in number and sometimes three, four or more. Their length is commonly several hundred meters and can even reach several kilometres, while their height is no more than a few decimetres. The enclosures are variable in shape (circular, triangular, star-shaped, etc.) and their size, far larger than pastoral enclosures, varies from a few hundred square meters to more than ten hectares.

The small stone constructions or cells that are joined to the external part of the enclosure are the most sophisticated part of the device, always carefully constructed. Their number varies from a single cell to several dozen. The variability among the kites makes it difficult to propose a typology. Several often-observed attributes are considered, such as a disposition of the cells near the entrance, the existence of cells at the extremity of pointed appendices and the particular shapes of the entrance. These features are most often shared by kites from the same region, thus forming homogeneous groups circumscribed at the regional scale. Kites are found in arid environments, steppes and desert margins and their topographical location is clearly the result of a definite choice. A break in the slope is the most often observed at the position of the entrance and various topographic configurations were preferred to flat topography.

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[sounds-of-arabia]

arabic cassette tapes

[postcard-from-the-past]

Street scene in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia

Saudi vintage postcard

[animatejournal]

Ali Baba Bunny Director: Chuck Jones Studio: Warner Bros. | USA, 1957

[artifacts-archive]

Incense burner

Arabia, ca. mid-1st millennium BCE

[ousnap]

Bollywood actress Rekha for Vogue Arabia.

[baebeylik]

Head ornament. Saudi Arabia. “Found” in 1975.

Very pretty. ❤️

The British Museum.

[safije]

Mada'in Saleh, Al Ula, Saudi Arabia.

This is where the surah of Al-Hijr from the Qur'an was said to have taken place.