Lying at a strategic point of the ancient trade routes of the Arabian Peninsula, the property was abruptly abandoned around the 5th century CE. Nearly 12,000 archaeological remains have been found, spanning from prehistoric times to the Late pre-Islamic era, testifying to the successive occupation of three different populations and their adaptation to the evolving environmental conditions. Archaeological features include the Palaeolithic and Neolithic tools of early people, tapered structures, cairns and circular constructions, the sacred mountain of Khashm Qaryah, rock carvings, funerary tumuli and cairns in the valley, forts/caravanserai, the oasis and its ancient water management system, and the vestiges of the city of Qaryat al-Faw.

Brief synthesis The Cultural Landscape of Al-Faw Archaeological Area is located at the junction of the Empty Quarter Desert and the Wajid sandstone outcrops of the Jabal Tuwayq Plateau and escarpment in the south of Saudi Arabia. It is an exceptional physical testimony to the successive human occupations from the Palaeolithic to the Late pre-Islamic era, showing how different peoples adapted to the evolving natural environment in the inland region of Arabia, which experienced a much wetter climate, before becoming a drier region, and finally one of the driest deserts in the world. The vast relict cultural landscape encapsulates extremely rich archaeological remains, including the flint tools of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods; a huge number of funerary “avenues” of stone structures dating from the second half of the 3rd millennium to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE and radiating out from the oasis; and numerous tumuli at the foothills of Jabal Tuwayq dating from 2000-1900 BCE. These are associated with a group of nomads linked to the Gulf and the Mesopotamian civilisation. The remains of the antique caravan city of Qaryat al-Faw and its oasis, which appeared in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE and lasted almost a millennium until the irreversible depletion of water resources led to its abandonment in the 5th century CE, exhibit a rich urban and architectural legacy, with a vast irrigation network and a large area of ancient plantation pits to sustain the oasis economy. As an important caravan relay on the route leading from Najran to central and eastern Arabia, the forts/caravanserais, commercial quarters, residential areas, and necropolises bear witness to a thriving and cosmopolitan caravan city and the capital of the kingdom of Kinda, a federal organisation of Arabian desert tribes. The presence of various groups is manifested by the linguistic diversity of inscriptions and rock carvings found at the sacred mountain of Khashm Qaryah and in the…