The Mustatils of Arabia
Across the deserts of north-west Arabia, satellite images reveal over a thousand giant stone rectangles, some longer than five football pitches.
What was reported
In north-western Saudi Arabia, hundreds of long, low stone structures lie across the desert, each a rectangle with thick walls and a 'head' at one end. Some are more than 600 metres long. Local Bedouin knew them, but their scale only became clear from satellite images and aerial surveys.
Archaeologists named them mustatils, from the Arabic for 'rectangle'. More than 1,600 have been mapped.
Explanations offered
Excavations found that they were built around 7,000 years ago, which makes them older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. Animal bones and horns found inside suggest they were used for rituals, perhaps offerings. Who built them, and exactly what for, is still being studied.
- When
- Built about 7,000 years ago
- Where
- Near AlUla and Khaybar, north-western Saudi Arabia
- Witnesses
- Archaeologists
- Status
- Partly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.