Jebel Hafit Stone Patterns

On the plain on the east side of Jebel Hafit, there are several areas covered in small, shallow piles of stones that form indecipherable patterns.

There are a few theories in circulation to explain these piles of stones but none of the explanations put forward yet seem entirely credible. With the area slated to be developed into a wildlife reserve, part of a national park, it is hoped research will be completed on the stones before development proceeds.

There are several concentrations of the piles, some relatively small, some covering a vast area. The piles, often a few dozen stones piled into a small circular pile, number in the hundreds, if not more. Some of the stones are piled into regular shapes like rectangles while, in other cases, the shapes are curved. In one area, there are, for example, rectangles arranged in parallel lines.

One area with a small concentration of piles	It is impossible to date the piles as they are composed entirely of small stones	A general view of one of the areas with only small piles irregularly spaced	Consisting only of stones from the gravel plain, the piles are a mystery
The edge of one of the larger areas	There are no pottery sherds among the stones, or any artifacts	While the piles are usually evenly spaced, they are not aligned in straight lines	An area where small circular piles are common
Some of the piles are larger than others but usually only a few courses high	This area begins about a kilometer from the base of Hafit and its third millennium BC tombs	First of a series of photographs taken from a small hill, panning from south through west to the north	View approximately south-west
A small shallow wadi cuts through the patterns	View northwest, a deep wadi on the right	View almost due west, the Hafit tombs at the base of the mountain	From the low hill, the larger piles are evident in the foreground
One of the smaller rectangles	The smaller rectangle with other shapes in the distance	One of the longer rectangles	One figure that has a distinct hourglass shape
Long curving rectangle (left) with parallel rectangles in the middle distance	View across some of the more complex shapes	A crescent-shaped figure	A unique-shaped pattern with the reconstructed tombs in the distance
One patter that appears like a lower leg and foot	A set of odd-shaped patterns close together	One of the long rectangles	Small piles framed by rectangles
View across a concentration of small piles	View towards Wadi Tarabat	Degraded piles in the foreground?	The area between the piles is clear of fist-sized stones
The mix of circles, rectangles and other shapes is a mystery	Detail of one small pile	Detail of one small pile	View back towards Mezyad
Another set of parallel rectangles	What appears to be a question mark	A large tear-shaped pile	View from one boundary back towards the small hill where other photos were taken

One explanation was that residents piled stones for sale to contractors

The stones are a mix of material, though predominantly limestone, the prevalent material

View of small circular piles with vehicle for scale

Though the area has been used for farming, with many tracks including geological survey tracks, the piles appear relatively undamaged

There are numerous concentrations on the plain on the eastern side of Hafit

The patterns are visible using Google Earth imagery, though admittedly the patterns are faint.

In the five photographs below, a Google Earth image of the area where most of the photographs above were taken, some of the patterns are visible, though not obvious. For orientation, some of the photographs above were taken from a low hill; that hill is the dark oval in the center top of the image. The sequence of photographs above were taken from the top of that low hill beginning with a view looking to the bottom right of the picture and ending with a view towards a point at about 10 o'clock on the image.

In the second, third and fourth photographs below, the image was converted to black-and-white, then the negative version, and finally a color-swap in an effort to make some of the patterns more visible.

In the last photograph below, some of the patterned areas are circled.

Google Earth image of one area

A black-and-white version of Google Earth image makes faint pattern lines visible

A negative view of the black-and-white image makes some patterns more obvious

A color swap may also make the patterns visible

Circles around some of the visible patterns