Harrat Khaybar

Ḥarrat Khaybar (Arabic: حَرَّة خَيْبَر) is a volcanic field located north of Medina in the Hejaz, Saudi Arabia.

[3] In respect of it being 'the largest historic basaltic volcanic cone in intracontinental settings within a Pleistocene rhyolitic tuff ring and lava dome field', the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included 'The historic scoria cone of the Jabal Qidr' in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022.

The remains of Neolithic human communities have been studied there, including habitations, fences, and funerary structures built out of volcanic stones.

[9] The Neolithic inhabitants also mined the volcanic field for obsidian [10] Sandstone mustatils associated with early cattle cults have also been studied in Harrat Khaybar.

Because the uneven lava plains are poorly suited to the construction of mustatils, many were built resting against volcanic vents.

[13][14] Researchers have studied hundreds of large stone structures nicknamed "desert kites" and "gates", but their exact purpose and function is still unknown.

[19] In 2004, neurologist Abdullah al-Saeed first began studying the structures in the lava fields and found them to be unimpressive, but reassessed their importance after reexamination of the area by the use of Google Earth.

[15] Al-Saeed and his team later collaborated with British archaeologist David L. Kennedy, who had used aerial archaeology to study similar structures in Jordan, but had not been allowed to cross the border into Saudi Arabia.