This structure - and you will not immediately guess what it is exactly - is called Qasr al-Farid and was built in the 1st century AD. It is located in Saudi Arabia, but was built in the ancient Nabataean kingdom, which was located in this territory.
Qasr al-Farid is a tomb, and it is believed that it is unfinished. As a result, in this form, it makes an even greater impression and stands out primarily in size. Its size is about the size of a 4-storey modern house. This is one of the largest tombs found in the region - and it is believed that the size of the tomb spoke to the social status of the person.
But no one is buried in Qasr al-Farid - inside there is an empty crypt, and even then, apparently, unfinished. And the very name Qasr al-Farid translates as "Lonely Castle" - the structure is located in the desert, quite far from any other structures. Although around you can see similar intact boulders - similar to the one in which the facade of this tomb was carved.
In this sense, the detached Qasr al-Farid is a structure quite typical for its time. The Nabateans often used huge chunks of sandstone as raw materials and carved external elements into these stones. Interestingly, by the way, as the researchers found out, the work was carried out from top to bottom, that is, the builders climbed onto the top of such a block and started work, going down a little, and in this case, only from one side..
131 similar monuments were found in the region, they are also called rock burials. Once there was the city of Hegra, which stood on the caravan route, was a major trade hub and the second largest city in the Nabataean kingdom. Now it is called the complex of archaeological monuments Madain-Salih. Since 2008, the complex has been included in the UNESCO list, the first in Saudi Arabia.
Promotional video:
In the design of Qasr al-Farid, borrowings from the architecture of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Assyria are visible. This says a lot about the culture of the Nabataeans. The buildings of the city of Petra in Jordan, which at that time was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, look exactly the same. By the way, at the beginning of the 2nd century, the Nabataean kingdom was annexed to the Roman Empire.
Peter.
Thus, Qasr al-Farid is only one of such monumental structures, but it is often spoken of as a separate attraction. There are many different assumptions and alternative opinions about the "Lonely Castle". The biggest surprise, of course, is the amount of work that had to be done to get this result.
As well as the accuracy with which this work was done - supposedly the technologies that made it possible to do all this in this form, among local residents, as among humanity in general, at that time simply could not exist. Hence the talk about unknown ancient or even alien civilizations, as well as other versions - for example, doubts about the correct dating of all these sights.
