Amazing secrets of the Nabataeans in Arabia revealed in groundbreaking study

The extraordinary site of Al Bad in north-western Saudi Arabia sits alongside Petra and Hegra as a key location for Nabataean necropolises

The southern necropolis of Mughayir Shuʿayb at Al Bad. Photo: BDAP and H Raguet

Fascinating light has been shed on the Middle Eastern Nabataean kingdom, with researchers having for the first time described a huge complex of tombs at a key site in the Arabian peninsula.

Saudi Arabian and French experts have published their analysis of 35 rock-cut tombs at the oasis area of al‐Bad in the north-west of Saudi Arabia, east of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Often forgotten in the past, the Al Bad site sits alongside Petra in Jordan and Hegra in Saudi Arabia as an important location for rock-cut Nabataean tombs, albeit on a smaller scale.

As Saudi Arabia develops its tourist industry, Al Bad is expected to attract increasing numbers of visitors keen to learn about the Nabataeans, whose kingdom existed between the fourth century BC and 106AD.

“This is one of the very few Nabataean rock-cut tombs necropolises, with Hegra of course and Petra, but a much smaller one and a very original one in terms of style, in terms of size, in terms of numbers of tombs. It's much more local,” said Dr Guillaume Charloux, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), who is the co-director of the work at Al Bad.

'Every tomb is different'

In a study published earlier this month, in the journal Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, Dr Charloux and a team of co-authors described in detail the 35 necropolises at two locations in the Al Bad complex, Mughayir Shu 'ayb and Al Asīfir.

The first author of the work is Louise Bigot‐Demereau, a doctoral student at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University, who described the site as “marvellous”.

One notable characteristic is that “every tomb is different”, with there being variation in, for example, the crowstep decoration above the entrance to some of the tombs, where crowsteps appear like two flights of steps that converge at the top.

“Even if it's the same type of decor, the two rows of crowsteps [on] each facade have some [unique] details,” Ms Bigot‐Demereau said.

“The height of the crowstep is different, the space between the upper and the first row is different. Of course, the quality of the decoration is different on all the facades.”

The very varied sandstone in the area meant carving the rock-cut tombs would not have been easy, which may explain why the workmanship is not as impressive as at Petra or Hegra.

“It's a really bad geological site for this,” Ms Bigot‐Demereau said. “The presence of the rock tombs, despite the geology not lending itself to them, is a clear indicator of the economic, political and cultural value of the site. That's why Al Bad is so interesting.”

Uncovering a hierarchy

The scale of the tombs, all collective burial areas containing the remains of multiple people, reflected the status of individuals buried within them.

“We want to try to see what is the cost of all these tombs because it's also an indicator of maybe a hierarchy in the necropolis,” Ms Bigot‐Demereau said.

“The cost of the tomb is linked to the time that a stonemason spent on each tomb … The more important tombs are the ‘tombs of the kings’, which are higher in the site and more beautiful.

“And their facades are orientated towards the site, which is a really important thing for the Nabataeans – to be seen by the living people in the urban site.”

Containing a mix of pit graves and burial chambers, and reused over the centuries, the tombs have been looted by treasure hunters, making it difficult, in some cases, to determine how many people were buried in each.

Saudi and international archaeologists from the Neom Heritage Department are excavating the tombs and their results will be published.

Al Bad, also known as ancient Islamic Madyan, has evidence of occupation from many eras from the seventh millennium BC onwards, including during the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age. Inscriptions, coins and pottery have been found at the site.

During the pre-Islamic era, Al Bad was on a complex web of caravan routes that crisscrossed Arabia and reached locations in what is now the UAE.

Within the site, there were many notable features, as well as the necropolises.

“You have a real city, surrounded by several necropolises. There were also hamlets or villages around the city while several monumental buildings were probably built inside the city,” Dr Charloux said.

“It was extraordinarily exciting and stimulating to explore this site with our Saudi colleagues because it was like rediscovering a huge place which was very little mapped.

“We had only sketches with no detailed maps before what we did, so it was very exciting, pioneering work.”

A station to control trade

Annexed as part of the Roman Empire in 106AD Al Bad had a Roman fort and what Dr Charloux described as a “fantastic” residence that was built during the Nabataean period and developed during the Roman period. Roman soldiers were stationed at Al Bad for the purpose of controlling trade.

“Everything coming from afar arrived at the Nabataean kingdom, many things arrived there immediately from the Red Sea and were probably transported to Gaza and Petra from there,” Dr Charloux said.

Offering a captivating piece of historical detail, a diploma from a Nabataean soldier who gained Roman citizenship in 142AD has been found at the site.

Despite its enormous historical interest, Dr Charloux said that the site failed to attract much attention from outsiders following visits by foreign travellers in the 19th century, and even until very recently was absent from certain maps of Nabataean sites.

With Saudi Arabia now on a major push to develop its tourism industry, the area is in the future likely to receive ever-greater visitors.

The work on the tombs is part of a major Saudi-French collaboration at Al Bad, which began in 2017 and co-directed by Dr Samer Sahlah of King Saud University in Riyadh.

As well as archaeologists, it involves a wide range of other experts, among them architects and surveyors.

In addition to being funded by the CNRS, the work is supported by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture, France's Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and the French Embassy in Riyadh.