It took us about 5 hours to reach Medain Saleh by Land Cruiser. The dwellings are carved out of the sandstone mountains. They started from the top downward completing the facade. The stairs on the top of the tombs represent a path to heaven.
Medain Saleh is located on what was once called the "Spice Route" or "Incense Route". Spice and Incense trading were very important to past civilizations and had great impact in this area of the world.
All of the dwellings we saw were tombs, the houses and shops are still being excavated. A team of French archeologists are performing the excavation. Madain Saleh was quite a bit different than Petra even though they were both Nabatean cities.
At Petra there seemed to be more dwellings closer together. The dwellings were more for families and community functions or for meetings/businesses. Another big difference was the Roman influence. At Petra there were the ruins of several temples and a Roman colonnade.
We really enjoyed driving through the mountains, we found them very interesting. What made them interesting to me was their composition seemed to change, some blending in with large sand dunes, some were very rocky like the grand canyon and others that seemed to be made of small rocks.
Along the way we saw free roaming camels, unfortunately, we saw one that was recently hit by a small truck. The truck cab was crushed and sitting on the wrong side of the road having crossed over after striking the camel.
This was the view from the courtyard of our hotel. It was right next to several beautiful mountains.
Once we entered the Al Ula area we were amazed to see all the Palm groves, trees and cultivated crops. The whole valley is green, something we had not previously seen in Saudi Arabia. When you look at the area on Google Maps you can fully see the amount of trees, crops and vegetation.
Our guide took us to a spot where it looks like a face is carved out of the rock. Several people posed like they were kissing him. Others turned so it looked like he was whispering in their ear. They all had fun thinking up different poses and then taking the picture.
Our guide then took us to a rock formation called Elephant rock, but I'm not convinced. If it is an elephant, I'm pretty sure what the pile behind him is.
We also spent some time in the Old Town part of Al Ula. There were over 800 residences in the Old Town section. They were mud/straw structures that were inhabited as recently as 40 years ago.
We drove to the top of the mountain overlooking Al Ula to watch the sunset and to look down on the town.
Along the way we looked into the valleys. Some places looked like the Lunar landscape or something you see in movies about Mars. It was really nice to climb out on the rocks to take pictures and look around.
The Hejaz railway also ran through this area. It was a narrow gauge railroad controlled by the Ottoman Empire that ran from Damascus to Medina. During World War 1, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and a guerrilla force of Arabs routinely ambushed and disrupted train service along this stretch of railway, greatly angering the Ottomans. They have a small Ottoman Traim Museum on site. The rolling stock looks nice but the locomotives are stripped down and not very interesting.
We were very fortunate to be able to go to Madain Saleh, a place few Westerners will ever see. Although tourism in Saudi Arabia is starting to be possible, it is difficult.
TJ & EA in KSA
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