عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Culture

RCU Launches 2025-26 Archaeology Season to Advance Research in AlUla, Khaybar 

The initiative brings together Saudi and international research teams conducting extensive fieldwork across AlUla and Khaybar. (SPA)
The initiative brings together Saudi and international research teams conducting extensive fieldwork across AlUla and Khaybar. (SPA)
TT
TT

RCU Launches 2025-26 Archaeology Season to Advance Research in AlUla, Khaybar 

The initiative brings together Saudi and international research teams conducting extensive fieldwork across AlUla and Khaybar. (SPA)
The initiative brings together Saudi and international research teams conducting extensive fieldwork across AlUla and Khaybar. (SPA)

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) announced the launch of the 2025-26 Archaeology Season, reinforcing AlUla’s growing prominence on the global stage as a leading hub for archaeological research and cultural heritage preservation, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday.

The initiative brings together Saudi and international research teams conducting extensive fieldwork across AlUla and Khaybar.

Part of a broader vision positioning AlUla at the heart of scientific and cultural inquiry, the new season convenes leading Saudi and international institutions, underlining AlUla’s role as a world-class platform for uncovering the history of the Arabian Peninsula and reshaping understanding of its past.

More than 100 researchers and specialists will participate, representing renowned institutions such as King Saud University, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Ghent University, Spain’s Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT-CSIC), and the Italian conservation group ESTIA. They will work alongside Saudi experts in archaeology, environment, and digital heritage to study sites ranging from the Neolithic era to the Islamic period in both AlUla and Khaybar.

The program spans a wide scope of projects, including excavations, field surveys, digital documentation, and sustainable conservation solutions, in addition to advanced research in environmental studies, climate science, earth sciences, and anthropology.

Fieldwork will focus on major heritage sites, notably Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, where excavations continue to reveal fresh insights into Nabataean life and Roman presence.

Research will also progress at the site of Dadan, the capital of the ancient kingdoms of Dadan and Lihyan, where recent analysis of environmental material, including more than 167,000 animal remains, has provided rare detail on daily life in the oasis over 2,000 years ago.

Projects also include the documentation of ancient rock inscriptions, among the largest concentrations in Arabia; studies of historic pilgrimage routes and their cultural and religious significance; and investigations into early Islamic urban development in Khaybar oasis. Specialist teams are returning to AlUla to advance pioneering research into scientific conservation and restoration using the latest global technologies.

The new season builds on a series of landmark discoveries in recent years. These include stone mustatils — rectangular structures dating back some 7,000 years and recognized as among the world’s earliest monumental ritual architecture — and circular stone enclosures pointing to semi-permanent settlement and shifts in land use.

In Khaybar, excavations uncovered a Bronze Age town and a vast rampart wall encircling the oasis, revealing complex political and urban development. Drone and LiDAR surveys have further illuminated and recorded intricate urban systems from the Islamic period.

At the historic city of Qurh, surveys and excavations have exposed an integrated network of markets, streets, a mosque, grand houses, and underground water channels, underscoring the site’s regional significance and role as a vital node on trade and pilgrimage routes.

In AlUla’s Old Town and cultural oasis, large-scale analytical studies — the most comprehensive of their kind in Saudi Arabia — have highlighted the evolution of water and agricultural management systems, while uncovering deeper settlement layers that may trace the city’s origins back to the era of the ancient kingdoms.

Beyond research and discovery, the season includes field training programs for archaeology students from Saudi and international universities. Using advanced tools such as 3D documentation and drone surveys, these initiatives are designed to equip a new generation of Saudi researchers with the expertise to lead future exploration and conservation efforts.

Through this season, RCU underscores its commitment to investing in knowledge and developing national capabilities, while strengthening cultural tourism and preparing for international exhibitions and the Ancient Kingdoms Festival. RCU is also progressing towards establishing a dedicated research institute specializing in cultural heritage studies.

Most Viewed

 
 
Culture

Private Museums Bolster Cultural Tourism in Qassim Region

A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA
A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA
TT
TT

Private Museums Bolster Cultural Tourism in Qassim Region

A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA
A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA

Qassim Region is witnessing a significant rise in private museums, as individual collectors transform personal passions into vital cultural projects. These museums serve as a living memory for the community, preserving rare artifacts, historical documents, antique weapons, and vintage collections that document critical stages of the region's history. By connecting the present with its roots, these sites strengthen national identity and provide essential research resources for scholars and tourists alike, SPA reported.

A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals.

His collection features rare agates, fossils from ancient geological eras, and unique rock formations discovered throughout the Kingdom.

The museum acts as a scientific platform, promoting geology and field research while educating the community on the Kingdom’s diverse natural resources and mineral wealth.

Located near Al-Khabra Historical Village, these private initiatives have become key cultural landmarks in Riyadh Al-Khabra Governorate. Their growth aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 goals to develop cultural and scientific tourism, support local content, and position the Kingdom’s heritage and natural sites as premier global destinations.

Culture

Saudi Arabia Showcases Literary Diversity at 2026 Rabat International Book Fair

‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA
‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA
TT
TT

Saudi Arabia Showcases Literary Diversity at 2026 Rabat International Book Fair

‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA
‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA

The Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission launched the Saudi pavilion at the 2026 International Publishing and Book Fair in Rabat, which continues through May 10.

‏Commission CEO Dr. Abdullatif Alwasel affirmed that the Kingdom’s participation in the event embodies the deep historical ties between Saudi Arabia and Morocco while showcasing a diverse, contemporary cultural movement driven by Saudi Vision 2030.

“Saudi Arabia’s participation at the 2026 International Publishing and Book Fair emphasizes the Kingdom’s commitment to spotlighting publishers and the creative literary sector, which continues to go from strength to strength,” Alwasel said, SPA reported.

‏He added: “The Saudi pavilion is an opportunity to invite people from every corner of the world to experience Saudi culture and diverse literary works, showcase unique Saudi talent and creative thinking, while facilitating cultural exchange and engaging discussions.”

‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions, led by the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, highlighting the integrated approach of the Kingdom’s cultural environment.

‏As part of the pavilion, the commission has organized a series of topical panel discussions, poetry evenings, and workshops featuring Saudi writers and creative thinkers, encouraging discussions on key issues relating to the literature, publishing and translation sector and its impact on Arab and global conversations.

‏The participation at the 31st International Publishing and Book Fair event reaffirms the Kingdom’s efforts towards platforming local talent and enhancing collaboration and cultural exchange.

Culture

Georg Baselitz, the German Painter Who Turned Postwar Art Upside Down, Dies at 88

German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)
German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Georg Baselitz, the German Painter Who Turned Postwar Art Upside Down, Dies at 88

German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)
German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)

Georg Baselitz liked to insist — sometimes as a taunt, ‌sometimes as a shield — that he did not know how to paint. That he had "no talent".

Rejected at 17 by the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, he talked his way into an academy in East Berlin only to be expelled two semesters later for "sociopolitical immaturity".

"I was stupid," he recalled. "I was uneducated, but I was a rebel."

From that rebellion, Baselitz forged a career that made the child of Nazi Germany, schooled under Soviet communism, into one of the defining artists of postwar Germany.

The painter and sculptor, known for his depictions of raw bodies and inverted landscapes, has died at the age of 88, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported on Thursday. No cause of death was given.

A REBEL SHAPED BY TWO DICTATORSHIPS

Georg Baselitz was born Hans-Georg Bruno Kern on January 23, 1938, in the Saxon village of Deutschbaselitz, a name he later adopted.

His father, a village schoolteacher and Nazi Party member, recorded Hans-Georg's birth in his diary. Inexplicably, he recorded the birth of none of his other four children, the Sächsische Zeitung daily reported in 2018.

After the war, ‌his father was ‌barred from teaching. Baselitz's mother took over his duties at the school.

Baselitz spent his childhood ‌amid ⁠the unforgiving discipline of ⁠Nazi Germany, and his adolescence amid the rubble and ideological re-education of the country's Soviet occupation zone.

"I was born into a destroyed order, a destroyed landscape, a destroyed people, a destroyed society," he later recalled. "And I didn't want to reestablish an order: I had seen enough of so-called order. I was forced to question everything, to be 'naive', to start again."

After he was expelled from the East Berlin academy, he moved to West Berlin, where he finished his studies and absorbed modernism in a way that felt, he said, like a sudden intake of oxygen.

He recalled the shock of first seeing works by Jackson Pollock and other abstract expressionists — evidence, in his telling, that ⁠the United States had a serious culture despite what he had been taught.

But rather than ‌imitate an American style, Baselitz turned back to German sources, drawing on expressionism, ‌folk traditions and imagery often dismissed by critics as ugly or even "degenerate".

SCANDAL AS A CALLING CARD

At a 1963 solo show in Berlin, authorities ‌seized two of his paintings on obscenity grounds. The episode made Baselitz famous.

The early pictures, marked by raw bodies, stunted masculinity and abrasive humor, were widely seen as provocation.

Supporters and museum curators have also framed them as a blunt report on postwar German life: damaged, compromised and struggling to find a new footing.

That sensibility carried into his mid-1960s "Heroes" paintings, which presented hulking, battered figures that looked less like victors than survivors ‌stumbling out of a defeated national myth.

But Baselitz's most recognizable works came in 1969, when he began painting motifs upside down.

After earlier experiments that fractured or partially inverted figures, he ⁠produced fully inverted works including "The ⁠Wood on Its Head" and "The Man by the Tree".

He did not simply flip finished images, he composed and painted them inverted from the start.

That approach altered how viewers read his works. By disrupting recognition, it forced attention onto the mechanics of painting — its color, balance and composition.

"An object painted upside down is suitable for painting because it is unsuitable as an object," Baselitz said.

The inversions made Baselitz an international figure in the 1970s and 1980s, as the market and institutions that once treated him as scandalous increasingly positioned him as a pillar of European postwar art.

His public reputation, however, did not settle into quiet respectability.

He repeatedly sparked backlash with remarks about female painters, including a widely reported claim that women "don't paint very well".

He also confronted the limits Germany's history places on gesture and imagery: a wooden sculpture shown at the 1980 Venice Biennale was widely read as evoking a Nazi salute, a reading he denied.

He was married to Johanna Elke Kretzschmar, known as Elke, with whom he had two sons.

In later life, Baselitz painted huge canvases from his wheelchair and moved his brushes and paints in a rolling cart.

"The sensible thing, in my situation, would naturally be to say: 'I stick to small formats'," he told Spanish newspaper El Pais at age 87. "But of course I don't do what's sensible. What's right for me is the nonsensical."