In Surah Al-Fajr (89:6-8), the Quran evokes the people of Aad: "Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with Aad, with Iram, [the city] of the prominent pillars, the like of which was not created in the lands?"
"أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِعَادٍ إِرَمَ ذَاتِ الْعِمَادِ الَّتِي لَمْ يُخْلَقْ مِثْلُهَا فِي الْبِلَادِ" — "Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with Aad, with Iram, [the city] of the prominent pillars, the like of which was not created in the lands?" (89:6-8)
The people of Aad are mentioned in the Quran as a powerful and prosperous civilization that was destroyed for its arrogance and rejection of the prophets. For centuries, this legendary city of Iram, sometimes called "Ubar" or "the Atlantis of the Sands," was known only through religious texts and Arab legends.
In 1982, explorer Nicholas Clapp, intrigued by ancient accounts, began searching for Ubar. He used satellite images from NASA and space missions to identify ancient caravan routes converging at a precise point in the Rub al-Khali desert in Oman.
In 1992, Clapp's team, accompanied by archaeologist Juris Zarins, discovered beneath the sands the ruins of an octagonal fortress dating from about 2000-3000 years ago, with massive towers and walls. The city had collapsed into a karst sinkhole, which corresponds to the destruction described in the texts.
This discovery, announced in National Geographic in 1992, was presented as the archaeological confirmation of the legendary city of Ubar/Iram mentioned in the Quran. Subsequent research confirmed that the region was an important center of the frankincense trade in antiquity.
The discovery of Ubar illustrates how modern archaeological research can shed light on historical accounts transmitted by religious texts. The Quran, revealed in the 7th century, mentioned a city whose existence was only confirmed archaeologically at the end of the 20th century.