by the late bronze age, a historically recorded people and land (median and the medianites) in the north-western portion of saudi arabia are well-documented in the bible. centered in tabouk, median stretched from wadi arabah in the north to the area of al-wejh in the south. the capital of median was qurayyah, it consists of a large fortified citadel encompassing 35 hectares and below it lies a walled settlement of 15 hectares. the city hosted as many as 10 to 12 thousand inhabitants. the medianites were depicted in two major events in the bible that recount israel's two wars with median, somewhere in the early 11th century bc. politically, the medianite were described as having decentralized structure headed by five kings (evi, rekem, tsur, hur and reba), the names appears to be toponyms of important medianite settlements. it is common view that median designated a confederation of tribes, the sedentary element settled in the hijaz while its nomadic affiliates pastured, and sometimes pillaged as far away land as palestine. the nomadic medianites were one of the earliest exploiters of the domestication of camels that enabled them to navigate through the harsh terrains of the region.