Hala-'l Badr

Archaeological features near Hallat al-Badr include standing-stone circles and burial cairns, rock carvings of cattle, a linear stone-structure that may have functioned as a desert kite for trapping animals, and multiple inscriptions or graffiti.

[10] Australian-led expeditions not far from Hallat al-Badr in Harrat 'Uwayrid have recently surveyed and excavated similar standing stone circle or "domestic" structures, which were constructed by Neolithic pastoral nomadic communities that may trace their origin to Jordan and Syria.

[11][12] Located at Hallat al-Badr's southwestern base there is a 1.8 km long erosional depression in the basalt capping of the underlying paleozoic sandstones of Jabal Thadra, a feature which has been described by Jacob Dunn as a paleolake or sabkha.

Dunn compares the Thadra paleolake to the ones discovered at Tayma and Jubbah in northwestern Saudi Arabia, both having served as important watering-holes and grazing areas for pastoral nomads and their flocks during the Neolithic and Bronze Age.

[14] Midianite pottery (also known by its more neutral term, 'Qurayyah Painted Ware' or QPW) dating to the Late Bronze Age was found not too distant from Hallat al-Badr at Tayma and Qurayyah in NW Arabia.

[15] More recent excavations have unearthed sherds of QPW at al-Bad'[16] and further south at Dedan near Al-Ula, suggesting that the Midianites were in the right place at the right time to be geographically and historically connected with the sacred volcanic mountain.

Currently, there is no archaeological evidence confirming or denying that Hallat al-Badr is to be identified as the historical Mount Sinai described in the Hebrew Bible, but its location in the land of Midian and volcanic nature make it a possible candidate.