Saudi Arabia's religious authorities have angered both locals and archeologists alike after they removed gravestones from a 3,000-year-old burial site in the city of al-Baha.

According to a report in the Al-Hayat newspaper on Monday, the Zinat graveyard was levelled by the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Although in Islam it is discouraged to build tombs around graves, the ancient site was seen as an integral part of cultural heritage by many of the locals.

The gravestones had inscriptions in ancient Arabic, which shows that the ancient inhabitants of the region were literate....