| At the beginning of 1990, there appeared press-releases
in the well-known newspapers of the world declaring “Fabled Lost Arabian city
found”, “Arabian city of Legend found”, “The Atlantis of the Sands,
Ubar”. What rendered this archaeological find more intriguing was the fact that this
city was also referred to in the Qur’an. Many people who, since then, thought that
‘Ad recounted in the Qur’an were a legend or that their location could never be
found, could not conceal their astonishment at this discovery. The discovery of this city,
which was only mentioned in oral stories of Bedouins, awoke great interest and curiosity. Well, what was it that proved this city to be
the city of the people of ‘Ad mentioned in the Qur’an?
Right from the moment remains started to be
unearthed, it was understood that this ruined city belonged to ‘Ad and of Iram’s
pillars mentioned in the Qur’an, because among the structures unearthed were the
towers particularly referred to in the Qur’an. A member of the research team leading
the excavation, Dr. Zarins, said that since the towers were alleged to be the distinctive
feature of Ubar, and since Iram was mentioned as having towers or pillars, this then was
the strongest proof so far that the site they had unearthed was Iram, the city of ‘Ad
described in the Qur’an. The Qur’an mentions Iram as follows:
"Seest thou not how thy
Lord dealt with the 'Ad (people),- Of the (city of) Iram, with lofty
pillars, The like of which were not produced in (all) the land?" (The Holy
Qur'an: Surat al-Fajr, 6-8)
 |
1. Ubar, could only be seen from space
before excavations were made.
2. A city 12 metres below the sands was uncovered by excavations.
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