10-08-2025
Echoes of the lion's roar found in Saudi Arabia's ancient art
RIYADH: On World Lion Day, a global awareness event for the species' decline, rock engravings in northern Saudi Arabia offer rare evidence of a time when these majestic big cats might have lived in the region.
Although lions do not roam wild in the Kingdom, their presence and interactions with ancient societies were notable.
According to the Royal Commission of AlUla, numerous lion depictions in AlUla symbolize strength, royalty, nobility, and bravery. These include carved guardians of a tomb at Dadan, dating back about 2,500 years.
During the early to middle Holocene (8,000 to 4,000 years ago), the region was wetter and greener, and lions may have been widespread. Archaeological finds of early human activity in AlUla from this time period include lion engravings.
As the region dried, the lion habitat may have shrunk to mountainous zones in Yemen and along the western Arabian edge into Jordan, Syria and Iraq.
The commission cautions that, while compelling, the lion iconography in AlUla does not conclusively prove that the predators lived there, since such images were also common in places like Classical Europe and Imperial China.
According to the RCU, the last confirmed sighting of lions in Saudi Arabia is currently unknown, but historical records allegedly support that lions persisted in Yemen into the early 20th century, and that the last known lions in Iraq were shot in 1918, with sightings in Iran in the 1940s.
While the RCU is engaged in reintroducing Arabian leopards to Saudi Arabia, there are no plans to bring back lions to the region.
Globally, lion populations have suffered severe declines: African lion numbers dropped by about 75 percent, with 43 percent of that loss occurring between 1990 and 2005.
World Lion Day, held on Aug. 10, serves as a reminder of the lion's cultural heritage and renews the call for global conservation efforts to ensure their survival.
