Ancient city 2000 years old discovered in Saudi Arabia
For the first time in 2,000 years, tourists in Saudi Arabia will have the opportunity to see the ancient desert city of Hegra, or Madain Salih. This became possible thanks to the government's policy of expanding the country's tourism and trade opportunities, which included large-scale archaeological work.
This was reported by My Modern Met.
Hegra was used as an important center of international trade during the existence of the Nabataean civilization.
"Who built these tombs? Who are the people who created Hegra? Where did they come from? How long did they stay here? Knowledge about Hegra is very important," said Davy Graf, an ancient Near Eastern archaeologist and professor at the University of Miami.
Archaeologist Lila Nem, co-director of the Hegra Archaeological Project, a French-Saudi partnership working on the excavations, explains why the Nabataeans remain such a mystery despite their influence.
"The reason why we don't know much about them is that we don't have books or sources written by them that tell us about how they lived and died, what gods they worshipped," she says. They didn't leave great mythological texts like the ones we have about Gilgamesh and Mesopotamia."
Just like the tourists in Petra, visitors to Hegre will see the beauty of 111 tombs scattered across the desert city. Their ornamentation and architecture were clearly influenced by Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures, whose symbolism is found in their mythology.
As a reminder, a mausoleum dating back to the Roman era was unearthed in London, where the rich were buried.
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