RIYADH — The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is embracing the world's most beautiful geological landmarks, the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) said, as the site have been classified and selected among the top 100 geological sites by the International Union of Geosciences (IUGS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The first 100 geological heritage sites were selected from among 181 nominations submitted by 56 countries, including 34 landmarks from North and South America, in addition to geological landmarks from 28 countries on the European continent.

Moreover, 15 landmarks were selected from the African continent, and 23 from Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East.

The Mount al-Qadar in Saudi Arabia has been classified as the most beautiful global geological features.

SGS stated that Mount al-Qadar in the Khyber tract in the Kingdom is one of the largest volcanic fields and among the last volcanoes that erupted 1,000 years ago, and formed an aesthetically pleasing shape, which is a large volcanic cone with a relative height of about 400 meters.

It is worth mentioning that during its eruption the Mount al-Qadar volcano ejected a large volume of lava and basaltic lava flows. In addition, information indicates that these lavas have covered the sites of stone structures , known as "desert kites", which were built during the Bronze Age, approximately 5,000 years ago.

It has pointed out that the location of Mount al-Qadar and other landmarks around the world that were chosen, such as: (the Grand Canyon, Yellow Stone National Park in the US, the Archean-Barberton Greenstone belt in South Africa, and Mount Everest, represent inspiring places that have contributed significantly to the development of Geological Sciences. SG/SPA