When you buy through links on our site , we may take in an affiliate committee . Here ’s how it works .
A jumbo wall dating back around 4,000 years has been let on surrounding an oasis in Saudi Arabia .
The wall was earlier 9 miles ( 14.5 km ) long and surrounded the Khaybar Oasis , located near the city of Al-‘Ula . It was about 16 feet ( 5 m ) high and 5.6 to 7.9 base ( 1.7 to 2.4 m ) fatheaded , the team said in astatement .
A reconstruction of what the fortification wall may have looked like.
The paries originally had 180 bastions , points projecting out of the fortification . Radiocarbon datingof charcoal remains found during excavations indicate that the wall date to between 2250 and 1950 B.C. , the squad wrote in a newspaper publisher published Jan. 10 in theJournal of Archaeological Science : Reports . Pottery remains on the rampart also hint that it go out to around that time . The bulwark may have been used for a few centuries before being abandoned .
Today , only about 3.7 mi ( 5.9 km ) of the 9 - mile wall and 74 of the 180 bastions stay on , the squad read in the statement .
Related:7,000 - year - old cult site in Saudi Arabia was fill with human cadaver and animal bones
Part of the wall with a bastion was found in Saudi Arabia.
Why were they built?
The rampart may have been constructed for several reasons . One likely purpose was military United States Department of Defense " against foray from nomads,“Guillaume Charloux , an archeologist with the French National Center for Scientific Research ( CNRS ) and lead writer of the paper , tell Live Science in an electronic mail .
In their paper , the scientist noted that the people who built the wall may have used it to delimit their dominion and to protect against flash floods . The squad noted that other model of bastioned oases have been found on the Arabian Peninsula and may be a signal that populations were becoming more sedentary .
— Arabia was ' cornerstone ' in early human migration out of Africa , subject area paint a picture
— inscrutable and ' beautifully cut up ' life - size of it camel carvings discovered in Saudi-Arabian Arabian desert
— Ancient 20 - inch - prospicient hand ax discovered in Saudi Arabia may be world ’s largest
It would have charter 5.8 million cubic foot ( 164,000 cubic meter ) of Edward Durell Stone and brick and about 250 citizenry work for four years to build the paries , Charloux read .
work out in the Khaybar Oasis is on-going , and Charloux say we can expect to hear of result discussing a goodish settlement that survive in the Khaybar Oasis . There " is another important publishing to hail , " he say .
Before the excavations were carry , the internet site was break down using satellite resume . The work on the fortifications was carry out between 2020 and 2023 by researcher with the Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project .
