 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Although it has been called "The Nameless City", Iram of the Pillars (Arabic: إرَم ذات العماد, Iram ḏāt al-`imād) has many names. It is also called Aram, Iram, Irum, Irem, Erum, Ubar, and Wabar. The once lost city was first mentioned 1,400 years ago in the Quran, chapter 89 (Al-Fajr), verse 6 to 14.
According to legend, King Shaddad ruled over 1,000 tribes, each consisting of several thousand of people. It is said Shedad subdued all Arabia and Iraq. Shaddad defied the warnings of the prophet Hud and Allah struck down Irem of The Pillars. The city of occult idol worshippers was first punished by a drought. When they did not relent, Allah sent his wrath in great calamity from which only the prophet Hud and a few faithful survived. Irem entered the Western imagination centuries ago through translation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, also known as Arabian Nights, whose first English language edition was completed in 1706.
Then Allah sent down on him and on the stubborn unbelievers with him a mighty rushing sound from the Heavens of His power, which destroyed them all with its vehement clamor
- The Arabian Nights
For over a thousand years the ruins of the city have laid buried under the sands of the unforgiving Rub' al-Khali. Dubbed "Atlantis of The Sands", the city it has eluded erudite scholars and avaricious treasure hunters alike.
Until now.
Efforts in recent decades had a false start in early 1990's, geology professor H Stewart Edgell later reporting (2002) that NASA satellite data used by archaeologist Juris Zarins' team was misleading and that the suspected site was simply an isolated waterhole, and that their supposed "fortress" was a building used by a few families of nomads.
That was only a setback.
In 2010 Linguist Dr. Herbert H. West of Miskatonic University discovered an unknown language being spoken in rural Yemen. Further investigation lead to the discovery of strange artifacts and stranger writings. At first he thought they might be of the same dubious nature as the famed Vonyich Manuscripts, but he quickly discovered the language to be authentic and analysis of the objects dated them to be several thousand years old. Although the weighty Pillars of Islam had risen in Arabia, they not so strong as to suppress the Pillars of Irem. Within the peninsula was a mystery religion still practiced, along with the tongue of its sacred scriptures still spoken in hidden villages and clandestine meetings.
Just over two years later, with the aid of the Iremic minority and seasoned scholars the ruins of Irem have now been discovered.