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“The red palace,” Qasr al-Hamra, was named for the redness of the area surrounding the hill at Tayma‘ in northern Saudi Arabia. The oldest settlement found here dates to about 540 B.C. Among the important finds were two stelae inscribed in Aramaic script (see the sidebar “Enigmatic Finds: What Are Two Aramaic Stelae Doing in Saudi Arabia?”) and a cube stone decorated with engravings, which show the influence of Mesopotamia as well as the Levant and Egypt.