Last Thursday, Dar AlAthar AlIslamiya organized a tour for its members to AlSabiyya area, to check out recently discovered tombs and artifacts excavated by a joint team from the GCC countries. Some of these tombs date back to around 1500 BC! It was an incredible experience to see these things up front, its amazing enough that these things actually exist in Kuwait!

The 2 pictures on the right with the circular stone figure are the tombs, and because of the width of it, it is believed that it belongs to someone important. The inner circle is the tomb itself, and the outer circle is something like a border for that specific tomb. I asked about the settlement that should be there along with the tombs, and I was told that they believe that these tombs belonged to people who settled in Failaka island probably. They came all the way here to bury their dead.

The first picture, top left, is of a figure that they found that stretches 45 meters in length, and 2 meters in width. It is still not clear what the purpose of it was, it is not a tomb. They found some pottery dating to the Hellenistic era in that structure.

The picture under that is of tiny structure that is not a tomb, but they think is a living area. It is divided to 2 sides and again it is not clear what the place was exactly.

The picture of a hole in the stone is an intriguing one. It is basically a hole carved in the stone with what seems to be like sunrays also carved next to it. This is was found on top of the hilly areas near the tombs.

The last two pictures are the most amazing pictures. This is a skeleton very recently found in a tomb, and hasnt been taken away yet. The feeling of seeing a skeleton that dates thousands of years in front of you is incredible! They also found many small artifacts and primitive jewelry in the same tomb.

(Click on picture for better resolution picture)


The whole trip was incredible, and Dar AlAthar should be thanked for giving us such an opportunity. If you are not a member, please do join! The sad part about this trip was that out of 50 people, only 5 were Kuwaiti. The rest were Americans, Germans, Indians, Lebanese, Japanese, Egyptian, and so on. When i mentioned this trip to some of my friends, none of them showed any interest! Its sad that we have this historical treasure literally in our backyard, but noone cares about it!

There are many negatives about the whole excavation thing in Kuwait.

  • The excavation area is full of campers, with no restrictions stopping them by the government.
  • Only 6 people are in charge of excavating the whole of AlSabiyya area, along with the whole of Failaka, and any other area in Kuwait!!
  • What really blew my mind is that they think they know exactly where ‘ma3rakat thaat ilsalaasil’ happened in Kathma area, and where they believe the dead were burried. But they havent been able to start excavations there because there is a camping ground on that exact spot and they dont have the authority to kick them out!!
  • Madinat AlSabiyya, which will be built soon will destory everything there! That tomb with the skeleton was found as part of a “rescue excavation”, where they try to find things quickly and rescue them before they destroy the whole area.

Walla its a shame that there is no repect or regards to such things in Kuwait by the authorities! Im just glad I had the opportunity to see these places in person before they are destroyed.

——————————————————————————————

Update - Just fount out that AlSeyassah newspaper ran a story about these excavations and the team behind this. Its worth the read for much more details than this post - Article in pdf