Search Results: Desert Kites

Desert kites are mega-constructions that consist of two long walls converging upon an enclosed space that has on its periphery small stone constructions called cells. Seen from the sky, their shape suggests that of a windborne kite; they...

Extracts of satellite images from Google Earth and Bing of kites from the Harrat-al-Sham in Jordan (above left), Qaratein area in Syria (above right), Ustyurt Plateau in Kazakhstan (bottom left) and the mountains of Palmyre in Syria (bottom...

Egyptian burial is the common term for the ancient Egyptian funerary rituals concerning death and the soul's journey to the afterlife. Eternity, according to scholar Margaret Bunson, “was the common destination of each man, woman and child...

In March 1715, Louis XIV of France (r. 1643-1715) issued a declaration stating that all subjects of the king were also subjects of the Catholic Church. In defiance of the king's decree, Antoine Court (l. 1696-1760) gathered a small group...

Desert kites on the Ustyurt Plateau (left) and in the northern Nefoud (right).

The geographical distribution of desert kites (updated June 2020 CE).

Salt from the Sahara desert was one of the major trade goods of ancient West Africa where very little naturally occurring deposits of the mineral could be found. Transported via camel caravans and by boat along such rivers as the Niger and...

A cell at the extremity of a pointed appendice from a kite in Armenia (up). The same configuration in Jordan, a cell under excavation (down).

Assembly in the Desert, painting by Jeanne Lombard, 1934.

Commemorative plaque of the first synod in the Désert at Montèzes near Monoblet, organized by Antoine Court in 1715.