Related papers: Stone structures in the Syrian Desert
The Arabia Shield has a volcanic nature inside. A region of the Western Saudi Arabia is in fact covered with vast fields of lava known as harraat. These lands are spotted by many stone circles and other quite interesting archaeological…
Recently some stone structures covering the harraat of the Syrian desert had been investigated using satellite imagery (arXiv:1106.4665). Dispersed in an arid landscape, they were probably made during the Neolithic period. Some of these…
The paper is proposing a survey of a region in Sudan, the Bayuda desert, using the satellite images as obtained from Google Maps. The images reveal the ring granitic structure of the region enclosed by a bend of river Nile. To enhance the…
The Great Bend of the river Nile contains the Bayuda region with its volcanic core. Along the river, a fertile strip of land has attracting human settlement for thousands of years and is then rich of archaeological sites. The distribution…
The chain of late Roman fortified settlements built in the Kharga Oasis, in Egypt Western Desert, represents an interesting case study to analyse how the ancient Roman town planners interacted with the landscape. A peculiar feature of the…
A recent announcement of some pyramids, buried under the sand of Egypt and discovered by means of infrared remote sensing, renewed the interest on the archaeological surveys aided by satellites. Here we propose the use of images, obtained…
We propose the use of image processing to enhance the Google Maps of some archaeological areas of Egypt. In particular we analyse that place which is considered the cradle of pyramids, where it was announced the discovery of a new pyramid…
This preliminary investigation addresses the discovery of an unidentified crater located south of the Sahara Desert between Qaret Had El Bahr and Qaret El Allafa, Egypt. The unidentified crater (hereafter tentatively named El Bahr Crater)…
This chapter examines the geographical meaning of the Sahel, its fluid boundaries, and its spatial dynamics. Unlike other approaches that define the Sahel as a bioclimatic zone or as an ungoverned area, it shows that the Sahel is primarily…
In several desert areas, the slow motion of sand dunes can be a challenge for modern human activities and a threat for the survival of ancient places or archaeological sites. However, several methods exist for surveying the dune fields and…
The architectural complexes composed by the two main pyramids of Giza together with their temples are investigated from an inter-disciplinary point of view, taking into account their astronomical alignments as well as their relationships…
The course of the Nile in northern Sudan follows a contorted path through bedrocks, creating the Great Bend. Few years ago, the satellite images showed a fertile strip of land with villages, where paleochannels of the river hosted many…
Drain away the earth's oceans and a global pattern of great ridges appears. Adjacent to these continental and undersea mountain ranges are layers of silt and clay, so thick that they fill the gaps between ridges, creating extensive…
Earth occasionally crosses the debris streams produced by comets and other active bodies in our solar system. These manifest meteor showers that provide an opportunity to explore these bodies without a need to visit them in-situ.…
A series of peculiar, visual alignments between the pyramids of the pharaohs of the 4, 5 and 6 Egyptian dynasties exists. These alignments governed from the very beginning the planning of the funerary monuments of successive kings and, in…
The megalithic enclosures of Gobekli Tepe (Urfa, Turkey) are the most ancient sacred structures of stone known so far, dating back to the 10 millennium BC. The possible presence of astronomical targets for these structures is analysed, and…
Earthworks appear in the satellite images of deforested sections of the Amazon Basin. These images, and several other archaeological evidences, are showing that a lost civilization is waiting for further researches.
Remote sensing for archaeological investigations using surface response is reasonably well established, however, remote subsurface exploration is limited by depth and penetration and ground resolution. Furthermore, the conservation of…
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has revealed the complex geology of Pluto and Charon. Pluto's encounter hemisphere shows ongoing surface geological activity centered on a vast basin containing a thick layer of volatile ices that appears to…
We briefly report on a crater on the western slope of Mt.Ararat . It is located in an area closed to foreigners at an altitude around 2100m with geographic coordinates 39\deg 47' 30"N, 44\deg 14' 40"E. The diameter of the crater is around…