The archaeological site Qurayyah, situated in the NW of the Tabuk Province of Saudi Arabia, has been repeatedly described as one of the largest and most significant oases of Northwestern Arabia. Human occupation in the oasis started at least from the early Holocene and continued to the Nabatean, Roman and late Byzantine period. The hydrologically favored position results from its specific geomorphological location where the plateaus fade towards the east and the landscape opens towards the Tabuk Basin so that a balanced water supply was ensured. We present a geomorphological map (1:20,000; main map) based on the interpretation of a high-resolution satellite image and detailed control in the field. The map integrates archaeological, hydraulic and natural features in order to show how the people at Qurayyah structured their landscape and developed water management strategies in relation to prevailing geomorphological processes during the incipient phase (Bronze Age) of the oasis.

As in many regions of the world, astronomy also played a major role in the ancient Peruvian cultures. However, the discussion of the astronomical relevance of the Nasca geoglyphs is very controversial. A really precise and extensive investigation of astronomical phenomena has not yet taken place; the necessary data were simply missing. In the Nasca project Dresden, these data have been recorded in recent years and stored in an Oracle database. In the very first step, all geoglyphs with an astronomical orientation documented by Maria Reiche were checked and verified. Subsequently, all lines of the entity “straight line” were systematically examined with regard to the celestial bodies of the Sun and bright stars. For this purpose, on the one hand, the ellipsoidal azimuths of all straight lines were calculated and, on the other hand, the elevation angles in relation to the horizon with the help of digital terrain models (DTM) were determined. Corrections for refraction, the curvature of the Earth, visibility and atmospheric disturbances were largely considered. The azimuths of the celestial bodies during the Nasca period were calculated with software developed in-house (theses by students) and compared with those of the lines. As a result, it was possible to establish that there are individual straight lines that are aligned with the Sun and the seven randomly selected bright stars. However, the number of hits found does not justify the theory that the Nasca Pampas are an astronomical calendar system.