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Saudi Arabian Airlines Launches Beta Version of 'Ahlan Wasahlan' Online Magazine

Saudi Arabian Airlines Launches Beta Version of 'Ahlan Wasahlan' Online Magazine
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Saudi Arabian Airlines Launches Beta Version of 'Ahlan Wasahlan' Online Magazine

Saudi Arabian Airlines Launches Beta Version of 'Ahlan Wasahlan' Online Magazine

Saudi Arabian Airlines, Saudia, launched on Saturday the online beta version of its "Ahlan Wasahlan" magazine, which is available to guests on all its domestic and international flights. Access has been expanded, and anyone can now browse the magazine online, at any time and from anywhere.

This step comes as an extension of a 15-year partnership between Saudia and the Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG), which are jointly publishing the magazine.

Khaled Tash, head of marketing in the Saudi Airlines Group, indicated that the site is part of an ambitious plan to develop the magazine in 2022.

"We aim to transform Ahlan Wasahlan into a digital platform that enhances the exposure and marketing of the Kingdom’s cultural and touristic attractions. The platform will use various digital solutions and provide interactive digital services," he said.

He added that Saudia "will work, in the coming months, to cooperate and coordinate with all concerned parties, as well as experts and specialists in the fields of media, culture and tourism. It will take their opinions and suggestions into consideration, to build various partnerships and to develop ideas for the content, publishing techniques, and innovative services."

Since its launch in 1977, Ahlan Wasahlan, in all its 492 issues, has showcased the extraordinary developments unfolding in Saudi Arabia, providing crucial information about the Kingdom’s rich heritage and giving valuable guidance about its touristic destinations in order to help travelers make the best use of their visits.

SRMG Labs, the group’s technology and digital platform developer, has finished developing the online version of Ahlan Wasahlan.

Saudia has invited readers and guests to check the new website and submit their comments and suggestions online.

This step comes as part of the ambitious transformation strategy of the Saudi national carrier, Wings of Vision 2030, as Saudi Airlines seeks to contribute to achieving the Kingdom’s goals at all levels, among the most important of which are the transport, tourism and culture sectors by 2030.

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Varieties

Muddy Footprints Suggest 2 Species of Early Humans Were Neighbors in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP
An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP
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Muddy Footprints Suggest 2 Species of Early Humans Were Neighbors in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP
An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP

Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbors some 1.5 million years ago.
The footprints were left in the mud by two different species “within a matter of hours, or at most days,” said paleontologist Louise Leakey, co-author of the research published Thursday in the journal Science.
Scientists previously knew from fossil remains that these two extinct branches of the human evolutionary tree – called Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei – lived about the same time in the Turkana Basin.
But dating fossils is not exact. “It’s plus or minus a few thousand years,” said paleontologist William Harcourt-Smith of Lehman College and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the study.
Yet with fossil footprints, “there’s an actual moment in time preserved,” he said. “It’s an amazing discovery.”
The tracks of fossil footprints were uncovered in 2021 in what is today Koobi Fora, Kenya, said Leaky, who is based at New York's Stony Brook University.
Whether the two individuals passed by the eastern side of Lake Turkana at the same time – or a day or two apart – they likely knew of each other’s existence, said study co-author Kevin Hatala, a paleoanthropologist at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.
“They probably saw each other, probably knew each other was there and probably influenced each other in some way,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
Scientists were able to distinguish between the two species because of the shape of the footprints, which holds clues to the anatomy of the foot and how it’s being used.
H. erectus appeared to be walking similar to how modern humans walk – striking the ground heel first, then rolling weight over the ball of the foot and toes and pushing off again.
The other species, which was also walking upright, was moving “in a different way from anything else we’ve seen before, anywhere else,” said co-author Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, a human evolutionary anatomist at Chatham.
Among other details, the footprints suggest more mobility in their big toe, compared to H. erectus or modern humans, said Hatala.
Our common primate ancestors probably had hands and feet adapted for grasping branches, but over time the feet of human ancestors evolved to enable walking upright, researchers say.
The new study adds to a growing body of research that implies this transformation to bipedalism – walking on two feet — didn’t happen at a single moment, in a single way.
Rather, there may have been a variety of ways that early humans learned to walk, run, stumble and slide on prehistoric muddy slopes.
“It turns out, there are different gait mechanics – different ways of being bipedal,” said Harcourt-Smith.