UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

The shifting sands of the deserts of the Arabia have long been steeped in myth, magic and, legend, and one of these are the tales of an ancient lost city variously called Ubar, Wabar and Iram of the Pillars, among others, said to be buried out there in the dunes forgotten and abandoned for thousands of years. Often spoken of by the Bedouin nomads of this vast land of heat and sand and even mentioned in the Quran and the classic book A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, the fabled city is said to lie somewhere out in the Rub’ al Khali desert, which spans much of the southern end of the peninsula, and was inhabited by a mysterious people called the Ad, ruled by a King Shaddad ibn ‘Ad. Said to have been established in around 3,000 BC, it was a place of grand beauty, with lofty buildings and sweeping, majestic pillars, towers and spires soaring up towards the sky, elegant and rich and beyond imagination from its position as a legendary trading post of spices and oils. It was supposedly a celebrated stop off point for traders, the land here once lush and green, in a region once called Arabia Felix, or “Fortunate Arabia,” its beauty well-known by all who passed, and the city’s legend grew as it was mentioned in fable and song.

And then the city suddenly disappeared from history, its people and magnificence fading into the mists of time sometime between around 100-300AD. The legend of the lost city of Ubar says that this vanishing was due to punishment brought down from God upon its people after they failed to follow the ways of Allah and refused the advice of the prophet Hud, their city buried by a massive, thunderous sandstorm that swept in out of nowhere to erase them from existence forever. Although it is of course unknown if this is all literally true or not, the disappearance of the mythical lost city of Ubar has over the ages been speculated to have at least been based on a real place, and its mystery is such that of course with such an alluring mythology adventurers have long sought it out in the unforgiving landscape of the Arabian desert, some claiming some success and others rumored to have never returned at all.

The Rub’ al Khali desert

One of the earlier attempts by outsiders to locate the legendary city of Ubar was made in 1930 by the explorer Bertram Thomas, who was at the time in the midst of a harrowing journey across the desolate Rub’ al Khali in a bid to become the first European to cross this sea of sun scorched sand, so inhospitable, lifeless and barren that it is locally called “The Empty Quarter.” During his perilous journey through this domain of endless sand and dunes Bertram was told by his Bedouin guides of a lost city lying out under the sand that had once been full of wealth and unrivaled beauty, but which had been ruthlessly buried by a vengeful Allah because of their sins. Bertram looked for the city they spoke of, thinking it to be in the vicinity of an area called the Ramlat Shu’ait, but found no trace of it at the time, and he would later mention it to T. E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, who called it “The Atlantis of the Sands.” Lawrence then made plans to search for it himself, even mentioning he might do it by airship, but he would die before ever being able to carry out his ambitious plan. In the meantime, Bertram became rather obsessed with the lost city of Ubar, making several forays out to look for it and even writing a book on it, called Arabia Felix. He would eventually find some traces of ruins in the sand and what seemed to be tracks used by caravans to get there, but it was inconclusive and he would die without ever seeing the fabled city that had consumed so much of his life.

The 1940s saw several promising finds by various explorers when English explorer Wilfred Thesiger found what he believed to be the remnants of Ubar at place called Shisr, which holds the crumbling ruins of a Bedouin well and what seems to be an ancient pre-Islamic stone fort. Then, in 1948 there was a geological party from Petroleum Development Ltd, who were conducting a geological survey of the Dhofar province when they too came to Shisr and claimed to have found a massive wall of an ancient fort, as well as a cave entrance beneath it leading down into the darkness of the earth. At the time the survey team was more interested in finding water for their camels and getting on with their harrowing work than investigating mysterious ruins, and so they did not look into it further, simply making note of it. There was also an expedition carried out by a St. John Philby, who did not find the city, but did claim to have made the unlikely discovery of a buried volcano lying dormant out there in the desert.

There have been various other expeditions in the years since to locate this mysterious Atlantis of the Sands, most of them either failing to find anything at all or merely bringing back intriguing but ultimately frustrating tales of finding enigmatic ruins in the sand, poking up like the bones of some prehistoric beast. One of the problems has always been that the area is so vast and remote, covering most of Saudi Arabia, as well as areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, all compounded by the fact that no one is really sure where Ubar is supposed to be, with numerous possible locations suggested over the centuries covering various far flung locales. Nevertheless, there are occasional sensational announcements that the lost Atlantis of the Sands has been found, and one of the more noteworthy of these was made in 1992 by a group of archeologists from Los Angeles who claimed that not only had they located the mythical city of Ubar, but had even determined why it had disappeared.

One of the leaders of the expedition, Nicholas Clapp, was fist inspired to look for Ubar after reading Bertram Thomas’ book on the matter, which in a sense infected him with the same obsession Thomas had had. Clapp began by studying old maps of the region, including several that had been drawn up in 200 AD by the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy, as well as old explorer’s reports, Thomas’ own speculations, and moving on to using advanced satellite imagery that utilized a radar detection system which allows researchers to peer right through the sand to make out subterranean features and allowed them to distinguish the ancient trade routes through the region, composed of hard packed earth flattened by endless camels. They found what they were looking for at Shisr, directly under the old well and fort ruins there.

An excavation was started and they began to uncover evidence of what would have once been some sort of settlement, including fire pits, shards of pottery, animal bones, incense burners, coins, and other artifacts, and most impressive of all some kind of mysterious fortress that lies at the center of it all, composed of eight heavy limestone walls measuring 10 to 12 feet high and about 60 feet long, and four immense towers each 10 feet in diameter and 30 feet tall. There was also found evidence of a caved-in sinkhole, which seems to have collapsed below the city to send it tumbling into the cavern below to its ruin, which would explain the stories of the city meeting a violent end. The survivors of this cataclysm would have then abandoned the city, leaving it to its fate to be reclaimed by the desert.

It seems like a remarkable discovery, but the problem is there is absolutely no way to determine if this was the actual mythical city of Ubar rather than just another set of unconnected ruins similar to those found in other areas, and indeed there has been a lot of criticism of Clapp’s claims that this is really the legendary mysterious lost city he was seeking. For one, there is no proof that the fortress found was in reality the hub of a settlement, and even if it was it does not seem that it would have been nearly on the scale of grandeur described in the great legends. In this case, the finding is just basically wishful thinking, prematurely assigning an identity to these anonymous ruins that may have had nothing to do with Ubar and which may not have been any more than a small caravan watering hole.

Then there are those who still doubt that the city ever even really existed at all outside of the tales, and that these expeditions are chasing shadows. One very prevalent theory amongst scholars is that Ubar was never actually a city at all, but rather a region and people that were once prosperous but met their end at the hands of the encroaching, withering desert and the decline of overland trade of incense oils and spices, and its romantic transformation into a mystical lush city of towers and gold was the product of later myths built around it, a real place only in the imagination. One archeologist by the name of Dr. Juris Zarins has said of this:

There’s a lot of confusion about that word (Ubar). If you look at the classical texts and the Arab historical sources, Ubar refers to a region and a group of people, not to a specific town. People always overlook that. It’s very clear on Ptolemy’s second century map of the area. It says in big letters “Iobaritae” And in his text that accompanied the maps, he’s very clear about that. It was only the late medieval version of One Thousand and One Nights, in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, that romanticised Ubar and turned it into a city, rather than a region or a people.

It seems that while the 1996 discovery is certainly interesting, there is no guarantee at all that this is the legendary city spoken of in lore and myth, and indeed Ubar, the Atlantis of the Sands, may not have even existed at all. This discovery does not solve the enigma, and neither it nor the doubts of Ubar being real have done much to quench the desire of explorers to keep pushing further out into this bleak swath of harsh desert in a quest for answers. In the end it remains just as mysterious as it always has, and for as long as the spirit of adventure and belief Ubar as a physical city exist there will be those who seek to find it. Whether they will find the once towering city out there buried in its ancient sandy grave or whether it only looms upon the landscape of the mind remains to be seen.

Here at Mysterious Universe, Robbie Graham has just reviewed the new documentary from Jeremy Corbell, Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers. Robbie says the following of Lazar: “He has always come across as absolutely sincere and has always resisted encouragement to embellish his original testimony. I am of the opinion that Lazar has never spoken untruthfully about his recollections of Area 51 and S-4. However, I have also never doubted that the story that he tells is untrue—which is to say that the circumstances and events of Lazar’s story were carefully orchestrated and staged for him specifically as part of a sophisticated and ongoing UFO perception management campaign, which likely has counterintelligence purposes far beyond the UFO subject.”

Robbie continues with regard to Lazar: “As has been documented by George Knapp and others, there is good reason to believe that Lazar really did work at and/or near Area 51 for a short time in the late 1980s. But it appears he was cherry picked for his job based on his psychological profile and his spotty personal and business history. In other words, it was known and desired that he would blow the whistle when the time came, and that it would be easy to publicly discredit him after he did so, ensuring that his story would not be accepted by all, but by just enough to engrain it into a rapidly expanding subcultural belief system.”

Robbie also says of Corbell’s production: “Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers makes for entertaining and thought-provoking viewing, but what’s missing is any real sense of the political and UFOlogical climate in which Lazar’s story originally came to light—we get the ‘what’ but we don’t get the ‘why.'”

I can fill in at least a part of the “why.” Right now, matters relative to Area 51 are getting quite a resurgence and a revival. In just four weeks from now my new book will be published. The publisher is Visible Ink Press and the title of the book isArea 51: The Revealing Truth of UFOs, Secret Aircraft, Cover-Ups & Conspiracies. As I note in the book, one of the reasons why a program to highlight a fictitious UFO angle at Area 51 was created, was to try and reel in Russian operatives. In his paper, CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs: 1947-1990, Gerald Haines, historian of the National Reconnaissance Office, stated that in the 1970s and 1980s: “Agency analysts from the Life Science Division of OSI and OSWR officially devoted a small amount of their time to issues relating to UFOs. These included counterintelligence concerns that the Soviets and the KGB were using U.S. citizens and UFO groups to obtain information on sensitive U.S. weapons development programs (such as the Stealth aircraft) [italics mine].”

KGB Building, Moscow

Indeed, creating fabricated tales (and documents) to try and “out” Soviet spies (and domestic assets too) gets to the heart of much of this. It’s a fact that in the 1980s – and specifically so in the latter part of the eighties – the Russians were deeply interested in what was afoot at Area 51. They knew, for example, all about a controversial land grab in the area by the U.S. Government which began in 1984 and which has continued for years. The Russians were also well aware that some highly radical aircraft were being secretly test-flown out at Area 51 and its immediate surroundings. There is another issue too. While Russian espionage agents were spying on Area 51 – and staying low in Las Vegas, as a means to keep the U.S. Government off their backs – U.S. agents were actually fully aware that those Soviet spies were operating in Nevada, looking to find out what was afoot at the infamous base. The problem was that the U.S. Government, military and intelligence community didn’t know where those Russian agents were, exactly, or who they were. Only that something disturbing was afoot locally, and which involved certain UFO researchers who may have “helped” those same Russians, as per Gerald Haines’ words relative to the CIA’s concerns about the KGB.

As a means to try and smoke out those Soviet personnel, and quickly arrest them, disinformation specialists at Area 51 may well have used Lazar as a patsy; as a man who was used by American intelligence to spread tales of acquired UFOs, dead aliens, and cosmic conspiracies. Lazar may have worked out at Area 51’s S-4, and he also may have fully believed those supposedly top secret briefing papers to which he had access and which told tales of ancient encounters between the human race and aliens, and genetic alterations to the human species made by advanced E.T.s. In that sense, Lazar was a completely unwitting figure in this strange mind-game.

It goes without saying that, for the Russians, uncovering the alien truth would have been the ultimate prize; even more so than anything that might be the creation of U.S. scientists. How could the Russians refuse the startling story – dangling like a carrot before them – of incredible alien science that just might give the Russians the upper-hand? Well, the answer is simple: they couldn’t resist it. The possibility of gaining alien technology, and even extraterrestrial weaponry, had the Russians practically hypnotized. The result: no doubt a quiet word from Moscow in the ear of a couple of guys hiding out in Vegas – let’s say Dimitri and Ivan – who are ordered to find out the amazing truth, but who end up getting arrested. Two important Russian spies have been captured and interrogated and, in the process, no real secrets have been compromised.

On this same issue, it’s worth noting one specific and short statement that Lazar made to journalist George Knapp, regarding what was going on at S-4. Lazar told Knapp that while he, Lazar, was at the base, the staff “play so many mind games there.” Lazar also admitted that certain memories from his time spent at Area 51 were not just hazy, but suspiciouslyhazy. This was something which led Lazar to believe that his mind had been tampered with – possibly via chemicals, hypnosis, and MK-Ultra-type “mind-control” technologies. Lazar was out at S-4, Nevada. But, what he was fed was fiction, designed to try and figure out the scope and number of Russian agents (and those suspected assets…) who were prowling around Nevada. They were actually – and originally – looking for highly advanced terrestrial technology. But, a plan was initiated to give those same agents and assets something else: aliens (dead and maybe alive), recovered extraterrestrial spacecraft, and top secret files. There’s just one thing, though: it was all bogus. Bob Lazar spoke truthfully about his experiences. But, what he was told and what he saw was notthe truth. The false stories of aliens and UFOs at Area 51 were born out of (A) the United States’ wholly understandable and real concerns of Russian knowledge of new American weapon-systems and experimental aircraft and of (B) U.S. attempts to bring that penetration to a halt and to figure out who, in those aforementioned “U.S. citizens and UFO groups,” were actively being used by the KGB.

All of this will be followed (quickly) by another book from me, which will take matters even further. It’s title and subtitle: UFOs and Russian Meddling: Soviet Penetration and Manipulation of the Flying Saucer Scene.