There are strange oval structures with prongs spread across the Harrat Rahat and Harrat Kishb. So far, around 1,500 of them have been located. Because of their visible characteristics I called them jagged bells and they can be divided into three different groups. Are they old or new? Were the prongs made by a bulldozer or by people who lived here long ago? I mean, most of them look rather old and are a case for archaeology. In addition, with a few exceptions, the structures in Group A almost all correspond to an identical blueprint. This, and the exact alignment in the same compass direction speaks against a construction site that was made by a bulldozer. With a few exceptions, almost all of them are orientaded from southwest to north-east. Some of these shapes are flipped over the east-west axis upside down. This eliminates the assumption that the prongs might point towards Mecca. The smallest are only five meters wide, while the largest jagged structure found so far has a width of 88 meters. All this suggests a ritual purpose rather than to to be a simple construction site. Was some star perhaps targeted? I'm sure there will be some interesting background to discover.
If anyone knows something about these constructions, I would like to receive some information:
Distribution of Jagged Bells in Saudi Arabia.
Statistics
Orientation:
Distribution:
By far the most finds are of type A. In terms of finds by number of prongs, bells with few prongs are in the lead, and the more prongs there are, the more the number of finds decrease. The orientation is predominantly SSW and is shown using the example of the 4-jagged bells type A.
Identical blueprint
Although there are a few exceptions, most of the type A structures have completely identical construction features, as if they were made using a template. In addition to their south-southwest orientation, they share a slight asymmetry. The west-facing side is significantly more curved than the east side. Towards the east, the curve is significantly flatter, or sometimes even completely straight. As a result, the prongs on the straighter eastern side begin immediately, while on the strongly curved western side they are further away from the edge. This pattern repeats itself regardless of how many prongs there are at the bottom. Only a few prong formations that have already lost their bell shape deviate from this pattern.
Jagged Bell Type A – Harrat Rahat
Images courtesy of Google Earth™
Jagged Bell Type B – Central Harrat Rahat and Harrat Kishb
Images courtesy of Google Earth™
Jagged Bell Type C – Harrat Rahat south
Images courtesy of Google Earth™
