What the Satellite Imagery RevealedThe search for Ubar became one of the early demonstrations of remote sensing applied to archaeology. What the imagery did confirm was that Shisur was a genuine nexus of ancient desert trade. The Shisur Site: Fortress, Well, and Caravan HubExcavations at Shisur uncovered the remains of a central fortress surrounding a well. Satellite imagery made it possible to detect ancient trail networks invisible on the ground, buried beneath centuries of windblown sand. The Shisur site had been physically known for years but had simply been dismissed as an insignificant Ottoman-era observation post.