Local legend in Riyadh is that when the kingdom of al Yamamah flourished in the region on the eastern edge of the Nedj plateau, lakes and streams for much farmland abounded, the original settlers there progeny of Joktan who with Peleg were the sons of Heber listed in Genesis 10, perhaps Joktan himself having settled there circa 2200 b. c., during the Ice Age, in the aftermath of Noah’s Flood.
