David Kennedy, an Australian researcher, whose team has already discovered thousands of archaeological sites in the Middle East, is the man who located the mysterious structures.
It is thought that the ‘gates’ were constructed between 2,000 – 9,000 years ago, however their purpose or function is still a mystery. The structures are actually only visible from far above.
“You can’t see them in any intelligible way at the ground level but once you get up a few hundred feet, or with a satellite even higher, they stand out beautifully,” said Kennedy.
“I refer to them as Gates because when you view them from above they look like a simple field gate lying flat, two upright posts on the sides, connected by one or more long bar.”
“They don’t look like structures where people would have lived nor do they look like animal traps or for disposing of dead bodies. It’s a mystery as to what their purpose would have been.”
Their discovery came about by chance, after a Saudi doctor who had an interest in the areas history made contact with him.
“He said ‘I’m interested in the heritage of my country, I’ve spotted on Google Earth that there are some rather strange structures in the lava fields’,” Kennedy told broadcaster ABC.
“He sent the coordinates of them to me and I had a look and I was bowled over by them.”
