Mughayr Shuayb Tombs, Al-Bad

Description

Mughayr Shuayb Tombs, Al-Bad is a rock-cut site in Saudi Arabia, Asia. Al-Badʿ: Nabataean oasis and rock-cut tombs gives its chronology as “Pottery, coins and inscriptions document dense Nabataean occupation at Al-Bad from the middle of the first century BCE through the second century CE. The approximate 50 BCE–200 CE interval describes this archaeological context, not an independently established construction date for every tomb. Occupation also continued into the Byzantine period.” Al-Badʿ: Nabataean oasis and rock-cut tombs also records: “The Mughayr Shuayb necropolis contains monumental rock-cut tombs. Their façades and burial chambers were excavated from the living rock rather than assembled as freestanding masonry monuments.”

At the oasis of Al-Bad in northwestern Arabia, Nabataean tombs were carved directly into sandstone outcrops, leaving monumental façades above chambers cut deep into the rock. Known as Mughayr Shuayb, the necropolis belongs to one of the region’s important Nabataean centres, alongside Hegra and Dumat. Archaeological work has revealed a wider landscape of settlements, burial grounds and public buildings around the oasis. Pottery, coins and inscriptions document dense occupation from around the middle of the first century BCE into the second century CE, with later Byzantine activity. These tombs connect the architectural traditions familiar from Petra and Hegra with a less widely known regional centre; their traditional name does not establish a biblical construction date.