Al-Yamamah Mosque Qibla Analysis and Cover up

Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia

In 2016, news broke out with the discovery of an ancient
mosque in Al-Yamamah, in Al-Kharj Province, just 80km
southeast of Riyadh by the French-Saudi archeological
team. Excavation began in 2013 but the site was
abandoned and covered up by end of the year the news
broke out.
 CONTENTS

Part V
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Pre-Islamic Arabia
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 14 The Tribes of Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Chapter 15 The City of Medina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

PART I Part VI
Geographical Background to Arabia Islam’s Holy City

Chapter 1 Geographical Locations in the Qur'ān . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 16 The Holy City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Chapter 2 The Founding of the Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 17 The Qibla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Chapter 18 Archeological Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Chapter 19 Literary Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
PART II Chapter 20 Historical Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
The People of ’Ad Chapter 21 Navigation and Pre-Islamic Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Chapter 22 The Abbāsid Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Chapter 3 The People of ’Ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Chapter 23 The Case for Aqaba and Al-Aqṣa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Chapter 4 ’Ad in the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Chapter 24 Qur'ānic Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Chapter 5 The Kings of ’Ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 6 ’Ad and the Book of Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Chapter 7 ’Ad and the Pharaohs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Part VII
Chapter 8 ’Ad, Edom and the Hyksos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Appendices

PART III A Timeline of Early Islamic History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

The People of Midian B Annotated Bibliography of Early Islamic Sources . . . . . . . . . . 414
C Early Qur'āns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Chapter 9 The People of Midian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 D Bibliography of Secondary Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
E Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

PART IV
The People of Thamud

Chapter 10 The Kingdom of Thamud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Chapter 11 Thamudic Trade Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Chapter 12 The Thamudic Golden Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Chapter 13 The Thamudic Kingdom Crumbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

vii
viii

QG15.indd 7
Prior to that, in 2011, Dan Gibson had published his findings on the 2/20/2011 3:15:54 PM

Qiblas of early mosques in chapter 6 of his book, Quranic Geography. QG15.indd 8 2/20/2011 3:15:54 PM

This was later followed by the publication of Early Islamic Qibla, with
detailed listings of early mosques qibla pattern.
His initial studies revealed that
all the mosques built during the
first century Hijra pointed
towards Petra, Jordan

It was only during the

second century that
the mosques began to
be directed towards
Makkah.
The shift was due to political
conflict between Ibn Zubayr
whom also claimed to be the
rightful heir to the Caliphate
against the Umayyad. Those
not declaring their alignment to
either parties began to alter
their Qibla, like in North
Western Africa choosing a
parallel line.

Other parties had

chosen a midway
point to show non-
partisan to the
conflict. This was the
transition period
before the Abbasid
made a systematic
establishment of the
religion of Islam and
made Makkah as the
final Qibla
Dan Gibson’s publications had received continuous responses from various people with knowledge of ancient mosques in their areas.
Since it is now easy to determine accurate qibla directions using apps and other GPS instruments, all these new information are now
stored in an online database where anyone can freely inspect the orientation of the early mosques through Google Earth platform, by
analyzing orientation of mosques in the satellite imagery.
https://nabataea.net/explore/founding_of_islam/qibla-tool/
When Quranic Geography was first published in 2011, there were just below a dozen mosques recorded pointing the middle point
between Petra and Makkah. But the number had since doubled as more information flowed in.

https://nabataea.net/explore/founding_of_islam/qibla-tool/
The discovery of Al-Yamamah mosque was an important milestone as the Qibla clearly
corresponds to the midway point between Petra and Makkah. There were over a dozen old
mosques displaying this qibla pattern which makes the qibla of this mosque wasn’t just an
isolated mistake. The moment it was realized that the Qibla corresponded to what Dan
Gibson had discovered previously, the Saudis did not waste any time by covering up the
archeological evident the same year it made into the news.
AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH
Based on the mapping
made by the archeological
research team, the qibla
was clearly not pointing
towards Makkah which is
towards the southwest.

Qibla
d irecti
on
283º
AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH
Bearings of the Qibla in both mappings

Saudi / French Archeological Mapping Satellite view

AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH Based on the orientation of the mosque, the bearing of
the Qibla is approximately 283 degrees North

Saudi / French Archeological Mapping Satellite view

AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH Extending the Qibla line (bearing 283 degrees) further northwest

Petra

Mid Point
Mekah - Petra

Al Yamamah

Makkah
AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH
Overall orientation of the Mosque with Petra and Makkah

B: PETRA, JORDAN PETRA

Latitude : 30°19'41.94"N
Longtitud : 35°26'51.47"E

Bearings to Petra : 333.25°

Distance : 1885 km

C: AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE, AL-

KHARJ, RIYADH 283°
Latitude : 24°11'31.63"N
Longtitude : 47°21'7.33"E
Qibla bearings : 283°
Riyadh

A : MAKKAH, KAABAH
Latitude : 21°25'21.08"N 49. 73° Al-Yamamah
2
Longtitude : 39°49'34.25"E
MAKKAH
Bearings to Makkah: 249.73°
Distance 816 km
AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH
Intersection point is midway between Petra and Makkah

PETRA
Intersection point is midway
between PETRA & MAKKAH

Latitude : 25°53'38.98"N 539km approx

Longtitude : 37°43'8.33"E
Mid Point Intersection
Distance from PETRA : 539 km Mekah - Petra

Distance from MAKKAH : 540 km

>>> Halfway between Makkah &

Petra
540km approx

Al-Yamamah
MAKKAH
AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH

Mid P
oi n t M
akkah
-Petra
AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH

Mid Point Mekah - Petra

Al Yamamah

Makkah
AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE, Timeline bar

AL-KHARJ, RIYADH Historical Imagery button

The following slides show the

satellite imagery records from
Google Earth in sequence from 2003
to 2017.

Anyone can view this by clicking the

historical imagery that will display all
the satellite images recorded by
Google Earth as the application
updates year on year.
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2003 satellite photos
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2011 satellite photos
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2012 satellite photos
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2013 satellite photos
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2014 satellite photos
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2015 satellite photo
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2016 satellite photo
Al-Yamamah Mosque, Al-Kharj, Southern Riyadh
2017 satellite photo

Archeological site covered up !

AL-YAMAMAH MOSQUE,
AL-KHARJ, RIYADH
As we can see, the excavation site was abruptly closed and the
mosque was covered again by end of 2016, the same year it
made it to the news. The Saudis obviously did not want the
Muslim public to know and they had to cover the truth before
Muslims starts to ask more questions.

The Qibla of Al-Yamamah mosque is very important due to its

location which was right in the centre of the Arabian
Peninsular. The fact that the qibla points exactly midway
between Petra and Makkah had revealed an important
information about the ancients Arabs. They had obviously
mastered the navigation technique from the accuracy of the
qibla obtained through their experience in navigating the
empty desert in their caravans.

Dan Gibson had a series of documentary videos to explain why

Petra fit in as the original Makkah based on physical evidence in
Petra, and descriptions in the Hadith and Sirat. Makkah on the
other hand had no archeological evident to offer to proof its
existence prior to the 9th Century.

The change of qibla from Petra to Makkah had many underlying

information that will reveal hidden history and narratives that
had been erased by the history writers. It’s time that we start
to question and find the truth.