JEDDAH: Interlocking circular stone formations discovered through aerial imagery in Al-Qunfudhah governorate, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, have drawn researchers' attention to a potentially ancient site whose unusual geometric patterns may have served a mathematical or astronomical purpose.
Photographs captured by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) in the Hali area of Al-Qunfudhah show rings of varying sizes and configurations built from local volcanic rock, forming overlapping patterns that are difficult to distinguish from ground level.
Historian and researcher Dr. Mohammed Al-Marhabi told SPA that the precision and arrangement of the formations suggest deliberate design rather than random placement. He said their layout does not indicate residential or burial use and proposed that they may have been used to observe weather patterns, seasonal changes or celestial movements.
Al-Marhabi linked the formations to Hali's long history of human settlement, noting that its fertile valley was an important population center with historical ties to Makkah. Local communities also had traditions of tracking seasons and calendars, he said.
He called for specialized archaeological research to establish the structures' origins and function.
Al-Qunfudhah lies along Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast in the Tihamah region of Makkah Province, south of Jeddah. Hali is among the historically significant valleys in the area.
Clues from ancient Arabia
The discovery adds to a growing body of archaeological evidence showing that ancient communities across the Arabian Peninsula developed distinctive stone structures for different purposes.
In July 2024, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) announced findings from research identifying Neolithic stone circles in northwestern Saudi Arabia as dwellings dating to the sixth and fifth millennia BC.
The structures, measuring between four and eight meters in diameter, consisted of vertically erected stone slabs arranged in two rows around their circumference. Researchers believe the stones served as foundations for wooden columns supporting roofs, possibly covered with animal skins.
Tools, animal remains and evidence of jewelry-making and trade suggested that the inhabitants had more settled and developed communities than previously understood, with commercial links extending toward Jordan and areas along the Red Sea.
In another major discovery announced in November 2024, archaeologists identified a Bronze Age settlement at Khaybar Oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Known as Al-Natah, the 2.6-hectare town was inhabited by an estimated 500 people between 2400 and 1500 BC, with some uncertainty in the settlement's occupation phases.
The oasis was surrounded by a 15-kilometer-long stone wall, while the settlement contained residential and funerary areas, narrow pathways and multi-story dwellings.
The research, conducted under the RCU's Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project with French partners, challenged earlier assumptions that nomadic pastoralism was the dominant way of life in the region during the Bronze Age.
Together, the discoveries highlight the diversity and sophistication of ancient Arabian societies. Researchers say further investigation of the Hali formations could help determine whether they represent another distinctive example of the region's early architectural and scientific practices.