Clinical

I mean for religious/historical purposes. Just few days ago some temples of the size of the pyramids were discovered underground in northern Saudi Arabia.

Clinical

Patricia Crone says archaeology is still in its baby phase in Arabia. At least it is not as extensively researched as Egypt, Persia etc...

Steviepinhead

Clinical:
Usually around here we prefer actual quotes backed up by a reference to the source of the statement, as opposed to loose paraphrases. Where and when did she say this, in what book, publication, on what date, on what page...?

I note that Patricia Crone is more in the nature of a historian of the rise of the Islamic religion than an archaeologist. Which doesn't necessarily mean that she doesn't know what she's talking about -- though, given her interests, she could be talking about archaeological investigations of the period surrounding and since the rise of Islam, and not Saudi archaeology generally.
Again, a little more detail would be appreciated -- a link to the announcement of this find. My google-fu could easily be failing me, but searching for terms like "Saudi Arabia," "archeology," and "temple" does not seem to locate a recent find.

anthrosciguy

Few places are as extensively researched (in archaeology) as Egypt and (the former) Persia. By that standard there is little archaeological research anywhere.

lpetrich

She may be talking about the Hijaz region, where Mecca and Medina are. That area may not have been archeologically researched as intensively as Egypt and Iraq and the Levant.

But I'd have to see a more detailed quote before I can conclude something one way or another.

In any case, Mecca cannot reasonably be claimed to be humanity's oldest city, another claim that Muslim apologists might want to make.

The honor likely goes to Jericho, with Damascus being a close competitor.

Draconis

I thought it was Ur (?)

or are only counting currently inhabited cities?

Draconis

Also he claims Mecca is at the centre of the world. This is impossible since nobody could survive there. 8000 degrees is a bit warm for most people.

SevenSafari

And who needs the pressure? :banghead:

Newton's Cat

Jericho was built, as a walled city, surrounded by a rock-cut moat 30 foot wide and 7 foot deep and a tower, the construction technique used indicating that it could have been well-over 100 foot high, around ... 8,000 bc (date disputed by some authorities). The pyramids were built around 2,500 bc.

lpetrich

Ur and Uruk are Sumerian cities, and Sumer was in southeastern Iraq rather than in the Levant. They have the oldest decipherable writing, around 3200 BCE, but they go back to only about 5500 BCE.


I also crunched some numbers about the Earth's exposed land area, and I found:

It is about 29% of the Earth's total area.

Its centroid is about 2200 km / 1400 mi from the Earth's center, and its closest surface point is in western Serbia, halfway between Novi Sad and the Croatian border (45.14 N, 19.51 E). And that point is halfway from the bottom to the top of the Earth's outer core, which is liquid iron/nickel.