Archaeologists recently spotted hundreds of stone "gates" in Saudi Arabia.
Google Earth is a handy tool for all sorts of endeavors, and it appears finding ancient structures is among them.
Using the feature, University of Western Australia archaeologist David Kennedy and his colleagues discovered roughly 400 stone gates built on the edge of Saudi Arabian lava domes near Medina, reports LiveScience.
It’s estimated the walls could be as many as 7,000 years old.
The Daily Mail notes that in a paper to be published in November’s Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, Kennedy describes the gates as, “stone-built…roughly made and low,” and appearing, “‘to be the oldest man-made structures in the landscape.”
Arrangements vary, with a number standing alone and others grouped into rectangular formations.
Kennedy notes the structures, “are found almost exclusively in bleak, inhospitable lava fields with scant water or vegetation, places seemingly amongst the most unwelcoming to our species.”
What purpose they served remains unknown.
According to Kennedy, learning more about the gates will require fieldwork.
