Philipp Peterer

Switzerland - 19-Oct-24 -

We visited the stone structures TWHS on our road trip around Saudi Arabia in 2024. We covered 2 of the 10 proposed locations and passed by several others.

Harrat Khaybar
Of the 10 proposed locations, 5 are Harrat (lava stone fields). When you look at our map with the dots it feels like no problem to find them, but it’s actually like finding a needle in a haystack. Nevertheless we are quite sure we (and I mean our fantastic navigator Randi) found the Harrat Khaybar location. After some small roads and a short hike up to a plateau we reached an area with a clearly visible wall, countless stone piles, some with an additional stone wall and stone circles. From the road it’s an unmarked hike and there is also no path. Some rocks are loose, so be careful.

Al-Faw
The Al-Faw loctation could be easily accessible once the site is open, but currently it’s in the mountain behind the fence. We therefore did not even try to visit

Rajajil standing stones
The main component and reason we added another 700km driving from Hail was the Rajajil standing stones. To visit them, we had to drive all the way up north, close to Sakaka. The the road off route 80 was blocked due to roadworks and as it is the only way to get there we needed to go offroad for an adventurous 300m.

When we arrived, we found a parking with a visitor center, but only cleaning staff present. To our enjoyment a small part of the fence was removed and we could enter the field. There are several groups of standing stones and a few, where all stones are not standing anymore. Most stones had carved-in inscriptions. They were brought in 7000-6000 years ago from an unknown location and worked on at the location. Quite impressive and even older than Stonehenge. 

Right when we got into the car and wanted to leave, another car with a lady (yes this is now possible in KSA) arrived and she honked to make us stay. She apologized that her workday starts at 12 and gave us the full visitor center experience. Saudi Coffee, free water, several rooms with videos and info boards. There were suddenly more employees and they all were extremely happy we were there. We got explanations in each room and had to take photos and videos with the staff. 

Despite the access road, this site is ready for inscription. It has the OUV and is finally not “more of the same” in the Arab States.