Mada'in Salih

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Rock tombs at Mada'in Salih
Hejaz Railway and Citadel with water reservoir for caravans

Mada'in Salih ( Arabic مدائن صالح, DMG Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ ) is an excavation site in northwest Saudi Arabia , around 400 km northwest of Medina , near the oasis al-'Ula . It is the ancient city of Hegra , a commercial metropolis that was inhabited by the Nabataeans and the Thamud . Its Arabic name goes back to a Quranic story, according to which the Thamud did not believe the prophet Salih and were therefore punished.

The place is on an old trade route of the Nabateans and has a water reservoir at the old caravanserai. With the construction of the Hejaz Railway at the beginning of the 20th century, Mada'in Salih received a train station. A small railway museum for the Hejaz Railway was set up in the engine shed around 2005 .

Mada'in Salih is known for the over 100 monumental tombs carved out of the rock from the time from the first century BC to the first century AD. It was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2008 .

The rock tombs are also mentioned in the Koran:

“And the residents of al-Jiğr accused the messengers of lying. We gave them Our Signs, but they turned away from them. And they hewn houses out of the mountains in search of safety. Then she was seized by the cry at dawn; what they had acquired was of no use to them. "

- Sura 15 , verses 80-84

literature

  • Andreas Schmidt-Colinet : New research in the Nabatean necropolis of Hegra in Saudi Arabia. In: Nürnberger Blätter to archeology. 3, 1986-88, pp. 38-40.
  • John F. Healey: The Nabataean Tomb Inscriptions of Mada'in Salih. (= Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 1). Oxford 1993. ISBN 0-19-922162-6 .
  • Laïla Nehmé: Explorations récentes et nouvelles pistes de recherche dans l'ancienne Hégra des Nabatéens, modern al-Hijr / Madāʾin Sālih (Arabie du nord-ouest). In: Comptes rendus des séances, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres. 2004, pp. 631-682.

Web links

Commons : Mada'in Salih  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Continental Railway Journal. 161 (2010), p. 127.

Coordinates: 26 ° 48 ′ 51 ″  N , 37 ° 56 ′ 51 ″  E