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The Artemis 1 rocket on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center

Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, the Artemis program is poised to take up the baton of lunar exploration with a test launch on Monday of NASA’s most powerful rocket ever.

The goal is to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972 — and eventually to Mars.

The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is scheduled to blast off at 8:33 am (1233 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

The mission, more than a decade in the planning, may be uncrewed, but is highly symbolic for NASA, which has been under pressure from China and private rivals such as SpaceX.

Hotels around Cape Canaveral are booked solid with between 100,000 and 200,000 spectators expected to attend the launch.

The massive orange-and-white rocket has been sitting on KSC’s Launch Complex 39B for a week.

“Ever since we rolled out to the pad last week, you can feel the excitement, the energy,” said Janet Petro, director of KSC. “It’s really, really palpable.”

The objective of the flight, baptized Artemis 1, is to test the SLS and the Orion crew capsule that sits atop the rocket.

Mannequins equipped with sensors will take the place of crew members, recording acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.

Cameras will capture every moment of the 42-day trip and include a selfie of the spacecraft with the Moon and Earth in the background.

– Splashdown in Pacific –

The Orion capsule will orbit around the Moon, coming within 60 miles (100 kilometers) at its closest approach and then firing its engines to get to a distance 40,000 miles beyond, a record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans.

One of the primary objectives of the mission is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which at 16 feet in diameter is the largest ever built.

On its return to the Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).

Orion, its descent slowed by parachutes, will end its voyage with a splashdown off the coast of San Diego in the Pacific.

Monday’s liftoff will be at the mercy of the weather, which can be unpredictable in Florida at this time of year, and NASA has built in a two-hour launch window.

If the rocket is unable to take off on Monday, September 2 and 5 have been penciled in as alternative flight dates.

Otherwise, it’s all systems go.

NASA gave the green light for the mission on Tuesday after a detailed inspection known as a flight readiness review.

That doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong with a rocket and a capsule flying for the first time.

– ‘Inherent risk’ –

“We’re doing something that is incredibly difficult to do and does carry inherent risk in it,” said Mike Sarafin, the Artemis 1 mission manager.

Because it is an uncrewed flight, Sarafin said the mission will continue in conditions that would not be acceptable for a flight with astronauts.

“If we had a failed solar array deployment we would proceed, and that is something that we wouldn’t necessarily do on a crewed flight,” he said.

A complete failure would be devastating for a program that is costing $4.1 billion per launch and is already running years behind schedule.

The next mission, Artemis 2, will take astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing on its surface. The crew of Artemis 3 is to land on the Moon in 2025 at the earliest.

While the Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon were exclusively white men, the Artemis program plans to include the first woman and person of color.

And since humans have already visited the Moon, Artemis has its sights set on another lofty goal — an eventual crewed mission to Mars.

The Artemis program is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon with an orbiting space station known as Gateway and a base on the surface.

Gateway would serve as a staging and refueling station for a voyage to Mars that would take a minimum of several months.

“I think it’s going to inspire even more than Apollo did,” Bob Cabana, associate NASA administrator and a former astronaut, said of Artemis. “It’s going to be absolutely outstanding.”

Southern China has recorded its longest sustained period of high temperatures and low rain "with the widest in scope and the highest average intensity since 1961"

China’s autumn harvest is under “severe threat” from high temperatures and drought, authorities have warned, urging action to protect crops in the face of the country’s hottest summer on record.

The world’s second-largest economy has been hit by record temperatures, flash floods and droughts this summer — phenomena that scientists have warned are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Southern China has recorded its longest sustained period of high temperatures and sparse rain since records began more than 60 years ago, the agriculture ministry said.

Four government departments issued a notice on Tuesday urging the conservation of “every unit of water” to protect crops.

“The rapid development of drought superimposed with high temperatures and heat damage has caused a severe threat to autumn crop production,” the statement said.

China produces more than 95 percent of the rice, wheat and maize it consumes, but a reduced harvest could mean increased demand for imports in the world’s most populous nation — putting further pressure on global supply already strained by the conflict in Ukraine.

Temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) have led multiple Chinese provinces to impose power cuts, as cities struggle to cope with a surge in demand for electricity that is partly driven by people cranking up the air conditioning to cope with the heat.

The megacities of Shanghai and Chongqing have cut outdoor decorative lighting, while authorities in Sichuan province have imposed industrial power cuts after water levels dropped at key hydroelectric plants.

More than 1,500 people were moved out of the area surrounding Chongqing on Monday after hot and dry conditions sparked multiple wildfires, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The searing heat is also drying up the critical Yangtze River, with water flow on its main trunk about 50 percent lower than the average over the last five years, state media outlet China News Service reported last week.

– ‘Worst heatwave ever’ –

The national meteorological service renewed its warnings for drought and high temperatures on Tuesday, calling for 11 provincial governments to activate emergency responses.

Authorities have already turned to cloud seeding — a method to induce rainfall — in parts of the country. 

State broadcaster CCTV published footage this month showing meteorological staff shooting catalyst rockets into the sky and firefighters transporting water to farmers in need.

“This is the worst heatwave ever recorded,” climate and energy expert Liu Junyan of Greenpeace East Asia told AFP.

“Climate science shows extreme heat is becoming exponentially worse,” she said.

“So it’s more likely that next year will have record-breaking heat.”

This year’s extreme weather is raising public awareness of climate change in China, with state media “now coming around to covering climate impacts” with unprecedented urgency, Liu said.

Government climate expert Zhou Bing warned over the weekend of mass displacement caused by climate change, describing extreme weather as nature’s “revenge” on humanity.

China has experienced three other episodes of intense heat so far this century — in 2003, 2013, 2017.

The gap between heatwaves is “significantly shortening”, Zhou said.

From Wednesday, only hydrogen-powered trains will run on a German regional line in 'world first'

Germany on Wednesday will inaugurate a railway line powered entirely by hydrogen, a “world first” and a major step forward for green train transport despite nagging supply challenges.

A fleet of 14 trains provided by French industrial giant Alstom to the German state Lower Saxony will replace the diesel locomotives on the 100 kilometres (60 miles) of track connecting the cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervoerde and Buxtehude near Hamburg.

“Whatever the time of day, passengers will travel on this route thanks to hydrogen”, Stefan Schrank, project manager at Alstom, told AFP, hailing a “world first”. 

Hydrogen trains have become a promising way to decarbonise the rail sector and replace diesel, which still powers 20 percent of journeys in Germany.

Billed as a “zero emission” mode of transport, the trains mix hydrogen on board with oxygen present in the ambient air, thanks to a fuel cell installed in the roof. This produces the electricity needed to pull the train.

– Run for its money –

Designed in the southern French town of Tarbes and assembled in Salzgitter in central Germany, Alstom’s trains — called Coradia iLint — are trailblazers in the sector.

The project drew investment of “several tens of millions of euros” and created jobs for up to 80 employees in the two countries, according to Alstom. 

Commercial trials have been carried out since 2018 on the line with two hydrogen trains but now the entire fleet is adopting the ground-breaking technology.

The French group has inked four contracts for several dozen trains between Germany, France and Italy, with no sign of demand waning. 

In Germany alone “between 2,500 and 3,000 diesel trains could be replaced by hydrogen models”, Schrank estimates. 

“By 2035, around 15 to 20 percent of the regional European market could run on hydrogen,” Alexandre Charpentier, rail expert at consultancy Roland Berger, told AFP.

Hydrogen trains are particularly attractive on short regional lines where the cost of a transition to electric outstrips the profitability of the route. 

Currently, around one out of two regional trains in Europe runs on diesel.

But Alstom’s competitors are ready to give it a run for its money. German behemoth Siemens unveiled a prototype hydrogen train with national rail company Deutsche Bahn in May, with a view to a roll-out in 2024.

But, despite the attractive prospects, “there are real barriers” to a big expansion with hydrogen, Charpentier said.

For starters, trains are not the only means of transport hungry for the fuel.

The entire sector, whether it be road vehicles or aircraft, not to mention heavy industry such as steel and chemicals, are eyeing hydrogen to slash CO2 emissions.

– Colossal investment –

Although Germany announced in 2020 an ambitious seven-billion-euro (-dollar) plan to become a leader in hydrogen technologies within a decade, the infrastructure is still lacking in Europe’s top economy.

It is a problem seen across the continent, where colossal investment would be needed for a real shift to hydrogen.

“For this reason, we do not foresee a 100-percent replacement of diesel trains with hydrogen,” Charpentier said.

Furthermore, hydrogen is not necessarily carbon-free: only “green hydrogen”, produced using renewable energy, is considered sustainable by experts. 

Other, more common manufacturing methods exist, but they emit greenhouse gases because they are made from fossil fuels. 

The Lower Saxony line will in the beginning have to use a hydrogen by-product of certain industries such as the chemical sector.

The French research institute IFP specialising in energy issues says that hydrogen is currently “95 percent derived from the transformation of fossil fuels, almost half of which come from natural gas”. 

Europe’s enduring reliance on gas from Russia amid massive tensions over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine poses major challenges for the development of hydrogen in rail transport.

“Political leaders will have to decide which sector to prioritise when determining what the production of hydrogen will or won’t go to,” Charpentier said. 

Germany will also have to import massively to meet its needs. 

Partnerships have recently been signed with India and Morocco, and an agreement to import hydrogen from Canada was on the agenda this week during a visit by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

A boy collects water amid shortages and soaring temperature in the Iraqi village of al-Aghawat: dozens of villages depend on sporadic tanker-truck deliveries and salty wells

Younes Ajil turns on the tap in his home but nothing comes out: dozens of villages are without running water in drought-hit Iraq, surviving on sporadic tanker-truck deliveries and salty wells.

For everything from drinking to bathing and washing dishes and clothes, Ajil and his eight children wait at their home in Al-Aghawat for trucked-in water from the Diwaniyah provincial authorities once or twice a week.

In burning summer temperatures that at times approach 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), he said he hasn’t bathed for four days.

“Even if there were daily deliveries, there would not be enough” water, the 42-year-old said.

Iraq is known in Arabic as the Land of the Two Rivers, but it has seen water levels on the once mighty Tigris and Euphrates plummet.

The Euphrates, which passes through Diwaniyah province, has visibly contracted in recent months, with some of the river’s weaker branches drying up.

Governor Zouheir al-Shaalan said “around a third” of his province has problems accessing water, with more than 75 villages affected.

Ajil has dug a well, but the water is salty.

“We mix that with the water from the trucks and make do,” he told AFP.

– Climate migration –

Local children cry out and run towards an orange water truck as it drives up the dirt road in their village. 

One person fills a tall white tank, climbing on top of it to hold the truck’s hose as water gushes out, while others wait to fill smaller tanks or even cooking pots.

Children splash gleefully in a rusting old fridge that has been laid on the ground as a cramped, makeshift tub. 

The UN classifies Iraq as the world’s fifth most vulnerable country to climate change.

Authorities blame drought for the current water shortages, but also dams built upstream on some rivers and tributaries in neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

Ajil shares his house with his brother, Mohammed.

Like most of their neighbours, they used to make a living from farming.

But over the past two years, the drought has brought local agriculture to its knees, so they have been selling their sheep to survive.

There are around 50 houses in the village, Ajil said, but only 10 families remain.

“The rest have left,” he said. “If there is no water, there is no more life.”

A report published this month by the International Organization for Migration in Iraq said that “climate migration is already a reality” in the country.

More than 3,300 families across 10 provinces in the country’s centre and south were displaced due to “climate factors” as of March this year, the report said, blaming water scarcity, high salinity and poor water quality. 

– ‘Farming is our lives’ –

Hassan Naim, who manages Diwaniyah’s water resources, said around 20 treatment plants were at a standstill.

Before, “some rivers ran dry, but only for a matter of days”, he said.

The present crisis has been going on for more than two months.

Naim acknowledged that authorities were distributing a “very low” amount of water compared to what was needed, but cautioned against using high-salinity well-water.

Diwaniyah Governor Shaalan said that to end the shortages, the province needed to receive double the current water flows of 85-90 cubic metres (3,000-3,200 cubic feet) per second along the Euphrates.

“Diwaniyah has no border crossings, oilfields, religious sanctuaries or tourism” to generate income, he said, urging authorities in Baghdad to exclude the province from the federal government’s water rationing plan.

“Farming is our lives,” he said.

Hundreds of angry Diwaniyah residents have twice taken to the streets to protest the situation.

Al-Aghawat resident Razzak Issa believes a deal with Turkey, the source of the Euphrates, is needed to increase water supplies.

“Yes, we can ration usage, but it’s hot. How am I supposed to ration? I don’t bathe? I don’t wash my clothes? I don’t bathe my children? It’s impossible,” he said.

He too mixes salty water from his well with the trucked-in water from the authorities.

“Where can we go?” he said. “Everywhere in Iraq is “torture”.

Children from the El Molo tribe have to take a fishing boat to school

At first light, children from one of Kenya’s smallest and most isolated tribes put on life jackets and board a fishing boat for the journey across the lake to school.

Until recently, they could walk the distance. A road connected the El Molo with the world beyond their tiny village, a lifeline for a secluded community of fishers and craftspeople subsisting on the shores of Lake Turkana.

But three years ago the lake started rising dramatically, lapping at the El Molo’s dome-shaped huts draped in dry fish, then pushing inland, forcing villagers to higher ground.

As the tide reached levels not seen in living memory, the El Molo watched their only freshwater pipeline slip beneath the surface, as well as the burial mounds of their ancestors.

Eventually, the road to the mainland disappeared completely, marooning the El Molo on an island in a lake so large and imposing it is sometimes called the “Jade Sea”.

“There never used to be water here,” said El Molo fisherman Julius Akolong as he crossed the wide channel that today separates his community from the rest of far northern Kenya.

“You could drive a jeep across.”

Turkana, already the world’s largest desert lake, stretching 250 kilometres (155 miles) tip to tip, grew 10 percent in the decade to 2020, according to a government study published last year.

That expansion submerged nearly 800 additional square kilometres (about 300 square miles) of land including around El Molo Bay, where the tribespeople live on Turkana’s eastern shores.

Extreme rainfall over catchment areas -– a climatic event linked to global warming — greater soil runoff from deforestation and farming, and tectonic activity were all cited as contributing causes.

– Blessings and curses –

The phenomenon has profoundly impacted the El Molo, whose distinct Cushitic culture was already under serious threat.

Barely numbering 1,100 in the last census, the El Molo are dwarfed by Kenya’s larger and more prosperous ethnic groups that dominate a country of around 50 million people.

Known as “the people who eat fish” by the livestock-rearing tribes of northern Kenya, the El Molo are believed to have migrated from Ethiopia to Turkana around 1,000 BC.

But few today speak a word of their mother tongue, and ancient customs have evolved or vanished entirely through generations of intermarriage with neighbouring ethnic groups.

The lake’s unexpected rise fragmented the remaining El Molo still following the old ways of life.

Some displaced in the disaster made the wrenching decision to relocate to the mainland, erecting a squatter camp on the opposite shore.

The cluster of shanties on a barren and wind-swept clearing is nearer to the school and other facilities, but a world away from their tight-knit community and its traditions.

“It was very difficult… We had to go and discuss this with the elders so they could permit or bless us to go with no curses,” said Akolong, a 39-year-old father of two.

For those who stayed, life on the island has become a struggle.

The El Molo are skilled fishers, but as Turkana rose higher their people went hungry.

The fishing nets and baskets used for millennia, hand-woven with reeds and doum palm fibre, proved less effective in the deeper water, reducing catch. 

No longer able to access freshwater, the El Molo were forced to drink from Turkana, the most saline lake in Africa.

Children in the village suffer chalky teeth and bleached hair, a side effect of the lake’s high fluoride content.

“We often get diarrhoea… we have no other clean water. This is all we have. It is salty, and corrodes our teeth and hair,” said Anjela Lenapir, a 31-year-old mother of three who decided to stay.

– Disappearing culture – 

School attendance has fallen sharply because parents cannot afford the boat fare, said David Lesas, deputy head teacher at El Molo Bay Primary School.

“Most of them remain at home,” he lamented.

The local government and World Vision, an aid group, are assisting but resources are scarce and needs many in the region, which is experiencing a once-in-a-generation drought.

The school has suffered too: the perimeter fence and toilet block are underwater, and crocodiles have taken over part of the playground.

But the real damage to the El Molo is indelible.

Separated from his people, Akolong has missed initiation rites, naming ceremonies, and funerals — rituals that strengthen tribal identity and community.

“We are now divided,” he said bitterly.

Stone cairns marking the resting place of El Molo’s dead have been swept away, erasing memories of the past, while the lake threatens venerated shrines to tribal deities.

“It is a place that is deeply respected in our culture. With the water rising, we will lose that tradition too,” said Lenapir.

Southern China has recorded its longest sustained period of high temperatures and low rain "with the widest in scope and the highest average intensity since 1961"

China’s autumn harvest is under “severe threat” from high temperatures and drought, authorities have warned, urging action to protect crops in the face of the country’s hottest summer on record.

The world’s second-largest economy has been hit by record temperatures, flash floods and droughts this summer — phenomena that scientists have warned are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Southern China in particular has recorded its longest sustained period of high temperatures and sparse rain since records began more than 60 years ago, the agriculture ministry said.

Four government departments issued a notice on Tuesday urging the conservation of “every unit of water” to protect crops.

“The rapid development of drought superimposed with high temperatures and heat damage has caused a severe threat to autumn crop production,” the statement said.

Multiple Chinese provinces have announced power cuts to cope with a surge in demand driven partly by people cranking up the air conditioning to cope with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

The megacities of Shanghai and Chongqing have cut outdoor decorative lighting, while authorities in southwestern Sichuan province have imposed industrial power cuts as water levels drop at key hydroelectric plants.

More than 1,500 people in the area surrounding Chongqing were evacuated on Monday after hot and dry conditions sparked multiple wildfires, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The national meteorological service renewed its warnings for drought and high temperatures on Tuesday, calling for 11 provincial governments to “activate” emergency responses.

Authorities have already turned to cloud seeding — a method to induce rainfall — in parts of the country. 

State broadcaster CCTV published footage earlier this month showing meteorological staff shooting catalyst rockets into the sky and firefighters transporting water to farmers in need.

“This is the worst heat wave ever recorded,” climate and energy expert Liu Junyan of Greenpeace East Asia told AFP.

“Climate science shows extreme heat is becoming exponentially worse,” she said.

“So it’s more likely that next year will have record-breaking heat.”

Southern China has recorded its longest sustained period of high temperatures and low rain "with the widest in scope and the highest average intensity since 1961"

China’s autumn harvest is under “severe threat” from high temperatures and drought, authorities have warned, urging action to protect crops in the face of the country’s hottest summer on record.

The world’s second-largest economy has been hit by record temperatures, flash floods and droughts this summer — phenomena that scientists have warned are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Southern China in particular has recorded its longest sustained period of high temperatures and sparse rain since records began more than 60 years ago, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

Four government departments issued a notice on Tuesday urging action to protect crops, calling for “every unit of water to be used carefully” through methods including staggered irrigation and cloud seeding, which aims to induce rain.

“The rapid development of drought superimposed with high temperatures and heat damage has caused a severe threat to autumn crop production,” the statement said.

The warning comes as multiple Chinese provinces announce power cuts to cope with a surge in demand, driven partly by people cranking up the air conditioning to cope with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

The megacities of Shanghai and Chongqing have cut outdoor decorative lighting, while authorities in southwestern Sichuan province have imposed industrial power cuts as water levels drop at key hydroelectric plants.

More than 1,500 people in the area surrounding Chongqing were evacuated on Monday after hot and dry conditions sparked multiple wildfires, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The national meteorological service renewed its warnings for drought and high temperatures on Tuesday, calling for 11 provincial governments to “activate” emergency responses.

A handout image obtained on August 23, 2022 courtesy of the Dinosaur Valley State Park shows dinosaur tracks from around 113 million years ago

A drought in Texas dried up a river flowing through Dinosaur Valley State Park, exposing tracks from giant reptiles that lived some 113 million years ago, an official said Tuesday.

Photos posted on Facebook show three-toed footprints leading down a dry tree-lined riverbed in the southern US state. It is “one of the longest dinosaur trackways in the world,” a caption accompanying the images says.

Stephanie Salinas Garcia of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said dry weather made the tracks visible.

“Due to the excessive drought conditions this past summer, the river dried up completely in most locations, allowing for more tracks to be uncovered here in the park,” she said.

“Under normal river conditions, these newer tracks are under water and are commonly filled in with sediment, making them buried and not as visible,” Garcia said.

Most of the recently revealed tracks were made by Acrocanthosaurus, which weighed nearly seven tons (6,350 kilograms) as an adult and stood 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall.

Another dinosaur, Sauroposeidon, also left tracks in the park. It measured 60 feet tall and weighed 44 tons in adulthood.

The state park — located in an inland area southwest of the city of Dallas — was once on the edge of an ancient ocean, and dinosaurs left footprints in the mud, its website says.

While drought revealed the tracks, rain is in the forecast, meaning they will likely be covered once more.

“While they will soon be buried again by the rain and the river, Dinosaur Valley State Park will continue to protect these 113 million-year-old tracks not only for present, but future generations,” Garcia said.

In this file photo taken on April 27, 2022 a general view shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, situated in the Russian-controlled area of Enerhodar, seen from Nikopol

Russia and Ukraine traded accusations Tuesday over who was endangering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as the United Nations urged both sides to insulate the Ukrainian facility from the ongoing war.

Russia called the meeting at the UN Security Council to discuss the dangers that close shelling and a military presence posed to the power plant in southern Ukraine, amid fears that a damaged reactor could leak radiation across the region.

Russian troops have controlled the plant for weeks and allegedly have placed arms and war supplies there, something that Moscow denies.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the plant, heightening the danger of a nuclear disaster.

Since the Security Council last discussed the issue nearly two weeks ago, “the nuclear safety situation has further deteriorated,” Nebenzya said.

“The armed forces of Ukraine continue basically every day to shell the territory of the nuclear power plant (NPP) and the town of Enerhodar, and this creates a real risk of a radiation accident,” he said.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s ambassador, countered that Russia is responsible for the risk and must pull its troops away and allow inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency into the plant.

“The only thing that the entire world wants to hear . . .  is a statement that Russia demilitarizes the Zaporizhzhia NPP, withdraws its troops, and hands it over to the government of Ukraine,” he said.

Kyslytsya said Kyiv supports a proposal for the IAEA to send a mission to inspect the plant, and hoped it would create a permanent presence inside to monitor it fulltime.

“It is really important to conduct the mission in a way that will allow the international community to see the real situation and not a Russian theatrical show,” he said.

Speaking at the beginning of the meeting, UN Undersecretary Rosemary DiCarlo said both sides need to agree on demilitarizing the plant even as the war continues.

“The facility must not be used as part of any military operation, and an agreement on a safe perimeter of demilitarization to ensure the safety of the area should be reached,” she said. 

“We once again urge the parties to provide the IAEA mission with immediate, secure and unfettered access to the site,” she said.

An aerial view shows a recently uncovered mansion dating back to the early Islamic period between the eighth and ninth centuries, in the Bedouin town of Rahat in Israel's southern Negev desert

Israeli archaeologists unveiled a 1,200 year-old mansion on Tuesday, broadening knowledge of the southern desert region where a mosque was recently discovered.

Described as a “luxurious rural estate” by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the home boasted a marble-paved hallway and walls decorated with frescoes.

The first building of its kind to be found in the southern Negev desert, according to the IAA, it contained vaulted rooms around a central courtyard.

The remains of oil lamps were unearthed in storage rooms underground, along with a cistern.

“The luxurious estate and the unique impressive underground vaults are evidence of the owners’ means,” said a statement from the archaeologists leading the excavations.

“Their high status and wealth allowed them to build a luxurious mansion that served as a residence and for entertaining,” added Oren Shmueli, Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Noe D. Michael.

“We assume whoever lived here was some local ruler,” Michael told AFP, adding that such estates had been “totally unknown in the Negev until today”.

The site in the Bedouin city of Rahat is due to be opened to the public on Thursday.

The estate is close to a rare mosque dating back to the same period, which Israeli archaeologists unveiled in June.

A few dozens Muslims likely worshipped at the site at one time, the IAA said.

The Muslim conquest of the region occurred in the first half of the seventh century.

“After we finish the excavation (of the mansion), it is planned that this place will be preserved”, alongside other discoveries like the mosque, Michael added.