It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Iram of the Pillars. (Discuss)

Ubar, a lost city, was mentioned in ancient records and was spoken of in folk tales as a trading center of the Rub al Khali Desert in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. It is estimated that it lasted from about 3000 B.C to the first century A.D. It became, according to legends, fabulously wealthy from trade of the coastal regions to the population centers of the middle-east and even into Europe. The city became lost to modern history, and was thought to be only a figment of mythical tales. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Iram of the Pillars (إرَم ذات العماد) is a lost city located on the Arabian Peninsula. ... In the popular imagination lost cities are real, prosperous, well-populated areas of human habitation that have fallen into terminal decline and been lost to history. ... The Rub al Khali (الربع الخالي), or Empty Quarter, is the largest sand desert in the world, encompassing the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. ... The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ...

Re-Discovery of Ubar

In the early 1980s a group of researchers became interested in the history of Ubar. They used remote sensing data from NASA, and identified old caravan routes and the point at which they converged. Excavations uncovered a fortress which protected the caravan routes and the all-important water source, which was a large limestone cavern underneath the fortress. Evidence of wide-spread trade was also found. An earthquake apparently broke open the water cavern and thus the water source was lost, after which the city fell into oblivion. NASA Logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Caravans comprise land-based trading convoys, often utilising the camel as a beast of burden, and generally associated with crossing deserts in Asia or Africa. ... Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998 An earthquake is a trembling or a shaking movement of the Earths surface. ...

In reality, Ubar was not the name of the city, but the name of the region. Ptolemy created a map in the second century which identified the area as "Iobaritae," or in other words, the Ubarites. The Qur'an referred to them as the people of 'Ad. Later legends referred to the fabulous wealth of the city and used the region name Ubar to designate it. Claudius Ptolemaeus, given contemporary German styling, in a 16th century engraved book frontispiece . Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος; ca. ... The Quran (Arabic: al-qurān literally the recitation; also called Al Qurān Al Karīm or The Noble Quran; or transliterated Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...

See Also

• Iram
• City of a Thousand Pillars

Iram of the Pillars (sometimes Irem of the Pillars) is a lost city located on the Arabian Peninsula. ... 198. ...

External links

• Lost City of Arabia, Nova On-line on the discovery of Ubar
• The Search for Ubar: How Remote Sensing Helped Find a Lost City, from a NASA Website