Some archaeological discoveries are so huge in scale that they can only be recognised from the air – think of the Nazca Lines in Peru.
In the 1920s, during the early days of aviation, pilots flying over the vast deserts of Saudi Arabia noticed mysterious shapes on the landscape below.
The shapes comprised straight lines, angles, and circles, which could not have formed naturally – they must have been man-made, but by whom? And why? Many of the enigmatic structures featured long pathways leading to walled enclosures.
Around 1926, RAF pilot, Group Captain Lionel Rees, likened them to the tail and head of toy kites. The name stuck, and they became known as ‘Desert Kites’, but their purpose remained unclear. There was, however, no debate as to the fact that these structures were very, very old – pre-dating the Roman Empire, the pyramids and, in some cases, even St onehenge. Over one thousand of these vast structures have been found on the lava field of Harrat Khaybar in North-western Saudi Arabia.
Dating from the Neolithic period, around seven thousand years ago, many local people had no idea of their importance until the shapes were revealed by aerial and satellite photography. Several theories were put forward as to the purpose of desert kites. Some believed they were huge prehistoric fortresses, others that they were ancient ceremonial sites. Another theory maintained that they were cattle pens, used for corralling vast herds of domesticated animals. This appears to be closer to the truth, as most scholars now agree that the kites were most likely used as complex ‘mega traps’ - hunting animals rather than containing them.What they tell us about the sophistication of the ancient people who built them is helping to redefine our view of the prehistoric world, but it also raises many intriguing questions.