Was the legendary “Atlantis of the Sands” real? In this video, we explore the mystery of Iram of the Pillars, the lost city often linked to the ancient people of ʿĀd mentioned in the Qurʾān. We explore whether it was originally a city or the name of a people, and all the legends surrouding it until this very day.

Music by Filip Holm

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Sources/Recommended Reading:

Al-Jallad, A.الجلادأ. (2025). The Epigraphy of the Tribe of ʿĀd [النقوش القديمة التي تذكر عاد]. Athīrat: Journal of Ancient Arabia, 1(1-2), 281-289. https://doi.org/10.1163/30504880-12340015

Clapp, Nicholas (1999). “The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands”. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Elmaz, Orhan (2018). “A Paradise in the Desert: Iram at the Intersection of One Thousand and One Nights, Quranic Exegesis, and Arabian History”. In “To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the Languages, Archaeology, and Cultures of Arabia, Dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald”. Edited by Laïla Nehmé &

Ahmad Al-Jallad. Brill.

Thomas, Bertram (1932). “Arabia Felix: Across the Empty Quarter of Arabia”. Jonathan Cape.

Thomas, Bertram (1933). “Ubar—the Atlantis of the sands of Rub’ Al Khali”. Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society, 20(2), 259–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/03068379308725252

Webb, P. A. (2019). Iram. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & E.

Rowson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam 3 (pp. 117-121). Brill.

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