Petroglyph G8 Khatm Al Melaha, Kalba, Sharjah

sketchfab

Painted Petroglyph G8 Khatm Al Melaha is located on the coast of the Oman Sea near Kalba in Sharjah. The Nubian Ibex depicted here likely dates back to the Neolithic 5th-4th Millennium BCE, as mentioned in Fossati's Messages from the Past: Rock Art of the Al-Hajar Mountains (Oman) [Fossati 2019]. Khatm Al Melaha is an extraordinary archaeological site with extensive rock art. It is one of the largest sites in the UAE and features stone houses, a shell midden, stone tombs, and other notable structures that span occupations from early Holocene to the 19th century. Over 175 stones with petroglyphs were meticulously documented, revealing nearly 400 motifs. Each rock with a glyph was assigned an ID number and GPS coordinate. On a single day, a staggering 25,455 terrestrial photographs, 5,244 drone photographs, 44 drone videos, and 182 precise GPS points (with a margin of error less than 1cm) were captured. Reality Capture and Substance Painter were employed to bring this ancient site to life.