The Standing Stones (Megaliths) of Al Rajajil Deciphered as an Ancient Land Survey Triangulation: لرجاجيل في سكاكا al-Rajajeel Archeological Site

In previous postings at
Land Survey Corner Stones of Ancient Egypt and Arabia: Sais (Sa al Hajar, Rosetta Stone), Nabta Playa (Table Rock Stone), Mecca (Kaaba), Dumat Al-Jandal (Missing Stone) 
and at
Sais, Champollion, the Rosetta Stone and Google Earth in the Context of the Alleged Four Corner Stones of Sais, Nabta Playa, Mecca, and Dumat Al-Jandal viz. Sakaka and Al Rajajil

I suggested that there was an ancient land survey and triangulation via four "corner stones" in "prehistoric" Ancient Egypt and Arabia (4th millennium BC). 

In my opinion, the standing stones of Al Rajajil (also written Al Rajajeel and Al Rajajeal), as shown in the images below, are a still existing documentation on the ground of that very calculation by ancient triangulation. 

But first, let us obtain some information on Al Rajajeel.

The standing stones (megaliths) of Al Rajajil, لرجاجيل في سكاكا al-Rajajeel Archeological Site (also written Al Rajajeal), are described via the Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities (SCTA) (Arabic: الـهـيــئة العـامـة للسيــاحة والآثــار )
at http://www.scta.gov.sa/, where Thamer Aud Al Malki writes in Archeological Sites in Al Jouf Province as follows:

Archeological Sites in Al Jouf Province:
by Thamer Aud Al Malki

3. Archeological Sites:

3-5 Al Rajajeal Antiquities "Erected Stones":

"The erected stones are located on 040.13.199 longitude and 29.48.664 latitude, 5 kilometers to the south of Garah administrative center.... [T]he site is on high ground overlooking a large area of low level to its north, and the current site has an area of approximately 300 m × 500 m with an extension in the west, where there are a number of separate groups of stone on the main site.” The site consists of a group of about fifty stone columns. The numbers of the columns in each group are differing from the other groups. [Columns also appear in] compact straight lines, some columns rise to more than 3.5 m, while others did not exceed 50 cm in height due to the fall of the upper parts of some of these columns and the thickness of 75 cm per column. There are also writings on some of the columns. The site dates back to the copper age or the fourth millennium BC.

These columns are believed to be primarily a religious site or second class graves. We hope researches and excavations will reveal to us the secrets of the site. It should be noted that the location of Al Rajajeal site to some extent, looks like the site of "Stonehenge" ... located 8 miles from Salisbury in England, a temple built from a combination of huge stones made in a circular motion ... topped by ... huge stone slabs." ...


3-10 Dumat Al Jandal Wall:
Dumat Al Jandal boundary wall is considered ... one of the ancient antiquities in the city.... The wall is located at the western side of the city. Its height reaches around 4.5 meters....


3-11 Lake of Dumat Al Jandal:
The lake is ... one of the important sites where visitors to the region ... reflect the third dimension of the whereabouts of the old city's population, because the water is the main source of the continuity of life. A tour has been taken around the lake and to its surrounding areas for to be in touch with the ancient life and to specify how people were living as well as the area and the density of the population in Dumat Al Jandal. The lake is fed by the groundwater besides the excess water from farms which flow to the middle of the lake. This is a beautiful tourist lake outlet must be exploited."

See in this regard also:

In the presence of HRH President of SCTA, Al Jouf Amir to lay foundation stone of Al Jouf Museum, and see also the 360° views at:
Al Jouf Museum, Al Rajajeel Ruins, Dawmat Al Jandal Lake, and Mared Fortress 

And now let us turn to the images:

Below is the image of the alleged four corner stones:

The Four Corner Stones of Ancient Egypt and Arabia

Below is an image from Google Earth in which I show how those same four corner stones are represented by standing stones (megaliths) at Al Rajajeel:

The Four Corner Stones of Ancient Egypt and Arabia
as represented by the Standing Stones (Megaliths) at Al Rajajeel

Below is an image from Google Earth in which I show how the actual triangulation was made, with two presumably triangulated "ties" of the triangulation marked by us at the blue circles.

The Triangulation of the Four Corner Stones of Ancient Egypt and Arabia
I cite to Surveyors.com: "Triangulation land survey technique uses series'
of connected triangles that join and overlap each other, and from there
the angles can be measure from determined stations. This is the most
commonly used land survey technique and is also very efficient as it
minimizes the number of measurement that need to be made."

The distances between the four corner stones on the ground at Al Rajajeel are thus simply fractions of the actual distance between the corner stones and the sides of the Al Rajajil four-corner triangulation. They run an average length of about .08 miles between corners using the measuring ruler at Google Earth.

The formula to discover the scale that they used is thus .08 miles times X = 580 miles (the average distance between the actual corner stones), which gives us a result of ca. 72.5 miles for X, which is the length in miles of one degree of latitude that we previously calculated for our stone age surveyors, and not that far off from the 69.172 miles calculated by modern land survey.

Perhaps the calculation of the ancients was more sophisticated than that -- but I leave that reckoning to others, who may wish to refine this pioneer work.

As we previously wrote:

"The modern-day value for the length of 1 degree of latitude is equal to
1 degree x 69.172 miles at the Equator. This does not vary significantly toward the poles.
The four corner stones of Sais, Nabta Playa, Mecca and Dumat Al-Jandal from North to South cover ca. 580 miles for ca. 8 degrees of latitude, which gives an ancient value (4000 years ago) by stone age astronomy of ca. 72.5 miles per degree of latitude. Some observers may expect more accuracy than that. We do not, for that era.
The modern-day formula for the length of 1 degree of longitude is equal to cosine (latitude) x length of degree (miles) at the Equator.
The four corner stones East to West give us separating distance values of ca. 570 miles (the distance between Sais and Al-Rajajil) for 10 degrees longitude at ca. 31 degrees North or a value of 57 miles for one degree of longitude,
and ca. 590 miles (the distance between Nabta Playa and Mecca) for 10 degrees longitude at ca. 23 degrees North or a value of 59 miles for one degree of longitude.
For comparison, the modern calculation is:
1° Longitude = cos (31 degrees North latitude) x 69.172 mi = ?? miles
1° Longitude = 0.8571673007 x 69.172 mi =  ca. 59 miles
1° Longitude = cos (23 degrees North latitude) x 69.172 mi = ?? miles
1° Longitude = 0.92050485345 x 69.172 mi = ca. 64 miles
Those are in our opinion very good values for stone age astronomy 4000+ years ago. Others may disagree.
Recall that Al-Biruni for ca. 35 to 36 degrees latitude obtained a value of 56.25 miles, and that was more than 3000 years later."

Lastly, thus, in full appreciation of the seriousness with which the ancients revered cats and lions as guardian creatures, below is an image of the man-worked cat-like shape of Lake of Dumat Al Jandal near Al Rajajil, as seen via Google Earth, recalling that "lions" viz. "cat-like" creatures in Ancient Egypt guarded the four corners of the realm:

The cat-like shape of the lake at Dumat Al Jandal

A cat-like creature is also found in the shapes of the wadis etc. of Nabta Playa, not as clear, but definitely, possibly present.

We have more about Nabta Playa in a coming posting.