Saudi Arabia
Hegra – 2017

The 2017 campaign of the Madain Salih French-Saoudi Archaeological Mission focused on five areas :
– the large Nabataean urban sanctuary built at the top and around the sandstone mound. This religious complex consists of an upper temple and probably a lower temple. The latter is built on a terrace surrounded by a long wall of temenos (religious limit of a sacred area). The plan of the temple itself is at present mainly understood, especially the structures bordering the temenos. The upper temple is composed of a paved tetrapyle installed in the middle of a courtyard, itself surrounded by a low wall. To the southwest of the complex, a large architectural unit is also being excavated. It includes many rooms organized around a paved courtyard.
– a block of habitat, southwest of the residential zone, not far from the wadi. Eleven phases of occupation were identified from the 4th-3rd c. B.C to the end of the 4th or early 5th c. AD.
– one of the city gates, in the south-easthern part of the rampart. This door, flanked by two towers, was in use from the end of the 1st c. BC to early 3rd c. AD. Several Greek and Latin inscriptions of the Roman period were found and are in the process of publication.
-two bastions located against the eastern side of the rampart. The excavations were meant to identify their construction date.
– the roman fort, leaning (built against the ?) to the southern rampart of the city. Its plan has been precised. It is the southernmost fort of the Eastern Roman Empire. From the 3rd c. AD to the end of the 4th c., it changed from a military occupation to a civilian one.