Desert Kites of Harrat Khaybar

Desert kites are large-scale stone structures built by prehistoric hunters across the Middle East and Central Asia. In Harrat Khaybar, kites take the form of converging walls of basalt stones that funnel game into a killing area or pit. Aerial archaeology has revealed numerous kites across the harrat, some extending hundreds of meters.

These structures testify to organized communal hunting of gazelles and other ungulates thousands of years ago, when the Arabian environment supported larger herds than today. The use of local volcanic stone made construction durable enough to survive millennia on the open desert surface.

The Khaybar kites are part of a growing inventory of Saudi archaeological sites that rewrite the narrative of pre-Islamic Arabia as a land of sophisticated hunters and pastoralists. They complement the rock art and settlement evidence found throughout the same volcanic landscape.