At the beginning of 1990, there
appeared press-releases in the well-known newspapers of the world declaring
“Fabled Lost Arabian city found”, “Arabian city of Legend found”,
“The Atlantis of the Sands, Ubar”. What rendered this archaeological find
more intriguing was the fact that this city was also referred to in the
Qur’an. Many people who, since then, thought that ‘Ad recounted in the
Qur’an were a legend or that their location could never be found, could not
conceal their astonishment at this discovery. The discovery of this city,
which was only mentioned in oral stories of Bedouins, awoke great interest and
curiosity.
Well, what was it that
proved this city to be the city of the people of ‘Ad mentioned in the
Qur’an?
Right from the moment
remains started to be unearthed, it was understood that this ruined city
belonged to ‘Ad and of Iram’s pillars mentioned in the Qur’an, because
among the structures unearthed were the towers particularly referred to in the
Qur’an. A member of the research team leading the excavation, Dr. Zarins,
said that since the towers were alleged to be the distinctive feature of Ubar,
and since Iram was mentioned as having towers or pillars, this then was the
strongest proof so far that the site they had unearthed was Iram, the city of
‘Ad described in the Qur’an. The Qur’an mentions Iram as follows:
Seest thou not how
thy Lord dealt with the 'Ad (people),- Of the (city of) Iram, with lofty pillars, The like of which were not produced in (all) the
land? (The Holy Qur'an: Surat al-Fajr, 6-8)
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1. Ubar, could
only be seen from space before excavations were made.
2. A city 12 metres below the sands was uncovered by excavations. |
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