Petra at Wadi Mousa

 Petra at Wadi Mousa  

Everyone knows Petra from either visiting it, as one of the great places to visit in the world or from the Indiana Jones film as the Treasury Building which is iconic.

Given the political and military situation in the Middle East, tourists have stayed away and the place is empty, so conversely, it is a great time to visit, you just have to ignore the whoosh of rockets, the whine of drones and the ack-ack of artillery fire that is some way off in the distance...or as one of the locals suggested, it was just training to keep you safe.

There were a great many fantastic sights to see but none that I could record for prosperity as my camera decided to have a day off. One more day off and it is scheduled for the dustbin and I will need an upgrade. 

Wadi Rum

 Wadi Rum  

We left our hostel on South Beach and drove up the coast to Aqaba. It was mostly an uninspiring journey past docks and industrial areas, container terminals and the railway terminus before we reached the main road out of Aqaba heading north towards Wadi Rum.

We left the special economic zone and were free to roam Jordan. We passed close to the railway that conects the port at Aqaba with the capital, Amman. In the siding was a stean engine used for tourist trains.

Some of the carriages.
We reached the Wadi Rum visitor centre and choose our preferred jeep trek, paid our entry fees and set off.

We were in a convoy of three 4x4s.

Leaving the Wadi Rum village.

Our first stop was at Lawrences' Spring, which rises out of Jordan's second highest mountain, whose summit at 1800 metres high is just a little further behind the cliff that we were looking at. History is written by the victors. The view that we have of Lawrence of Arabia, as depicted in the 1962 blockbuster film, Lawrence of Arabia starring Antony Quinn and Alec Guinness as being instrumental in leading the Arab revolt is slightly at odds with the Arab version of events where Lawrence is cast in more of a role of a military attache and bystander.

The spring here is near the base of a whit tree a little way up the mountain. It has existed for hundreds of years. A Nabatean inscription on a rock at the base of the cliff indictes its presence.

One of the other 4x4s.

The second stop, at the Red Dunes, as depicted in severla films such as Dune, Star Wars and a few I can't remember.

Looking back down the dune.

We passed several tented camps, some permanent and some marked as temporary on th map although they all looked long term sites. 

We stopped at Khazali Canyon, a deep cleft cut into the mountain.

Views up the cleft. 

Next stop was the Little Bridge, a natural rock arch.

Another view of one of the tented camps offering a Bedouin night camping in the desert.

We rounded a corner and there was another hill to climb for the view.

The view aross Wadi Rum.

And Lawrence's House, a structure that eisted before he arrived and where he spent six months living in the desert, waiting for the fighting season to start and for the Arab tribes to gather in force.

We raced cross the desert.

Sometimes side by side and sometimes nose to tail.

Um Frouth Rock Bridge. Another natural rock arch.

Another view.

A Nabatean Temple.

A rail wagon put to a different puepose as a cafe in Wadi Rum village.

We expected a stem train to pick us up in the middle of nowhere for a re-enactment of an Arab attack on an Ottoman train but it had suffered a breakdown and was cancelled.

A wind farm en route from Wadi Rum to Petra.

A view from one of the highest souvenir shops in the country, run by Queen Noors Foundation to better the plight of women in society. It must have been on every coach tour itinerary so whilst it was empty when we arrived, it has a massive car park and large toilets for ten people at a time.

Jordan

 Jordan 

We crossed into Jordan at midday. We were the only vehicle crossing all the time that we wer at the border. It as super fast getting out of Saudi Arabia. Jordan took a little longer. After spending weekd in dry countries, we spent more time in the duty free at the border than we did getting checked into Jordan. 

Marianna took a little longer as she had to be searched and insurance bought. Whilst that was happening, we changed money at the border, bought new SIM cards and hooked up to the local internet to rrsearch what we would do next for our two days in Aqaba.

The place was deserted, a result of hostilities across the border although we were miles away from the heavy action in Israel and th Gaza Strip and Lebanon and the recent events in Syria. The main beachfront road at midday was empty.

The beaches were empty. At least there were no crowds which I dislike. Also anything we wanted to book was available. Providers wer falling over themselves to sell us something.

I went diving on some of the fantastic reefs and shipwrecks just off shore. 

Neom

 Neom 

We drove up the coast and after Duba, we were stopped at the first security check point for the Neom Project.

This is an unbelieveable project to build a whole new city in the desert. Its major building will be a 105 kilometre long skyscraper.. The plans call for a 125 metre high dam in the mountains where the retaining wall will slope outwards defying conventional dam engineering principles.

A new motorway has been built, parallel to the existing main road for the sole use of construction traffic. Billions of tons of spoil has to be moved. Whole mountains are to be dug out and crushed to provide aggregate for the construction of new buildings.

The project is so vast, that a new port is being built.

A new power station is being built with power lines stretching across the desert to feed both the city and the surrounding area and export power to Jordan.

New power lines.

A whole new city is being built to house the construction workers who will be building the new city. It is truely a mega project.

Wadi Disah

 Wadi Disah  

We were up early for a prompt start to leave Al Ula bush camp to drive north to another bush cap at Wadi Disah.

                                        

It was another area of sandstone that had been eroded into interesting shapes.

                                        

And columns of rock.

The wadi is an unspoilt wadi with a stream running trough the centre. There are no facilities but also no cafes, souvenir shops or street vendors. It is still unspoilt but with 2030 looing, it will be very different in just a few years time. 

The road finished outsde the town and there is a deep ford...or shallow if you take the route aound the edge.

Some people liked to take the deep route for the fun of driving through deep water.

A convoy of cars going through the ford. Despite the convoy, it was a quiet valley with feww tourists. I walked for two hours up the wadi and only saw a handful of cars and none on the way back until I got within half a kiloetre of the first and deeest ford.

Some holes for taking wooden poles to create a temporary shelter. 

Just one of many crags.

I was walking up the wadi but the rest of the group had a jeep tour up it and they passed me on their way back down.

An iconic tower in the wadi.

The tower reflected in one of the many fords. The deepest was knee deep but enough to get wet even if you are in a car.

We bush camped at the end of the wadi. The next morning was another early start in the dark to drive up to cross the border into Jordan.

Al Ula, Dadan and Hegra

 Dadan and Hegra  

We had bush camped close to one of Saudi Arabia's most popular attractions which was the country's first UNESCO listed site in 2008. It is simialr to Jordan's Petra site, with caves cut into the cliffs but predates the Nabtean Petra by more than 500 ears.

First stop was the Lion Tombs at Dadan. There are tombs cut into the cliff face.

A close up of the Lion Tomb, the hole in the cliff at the centre of the photo. Just above it and to either side are the two carvings of lions which give the tomb their name.

Another part of the site...

...and another view, the central circular object is a water tank, located just behind the well. The tank was carved from a single block of stone.

More tombs caved into the rock face. 

We moved on to Jabal Ikmah, another site of a similar age that houses a lot of inscriptions. 

A view up the valley.

Just one of dozens of inscriptions.

Then it was time for lunch. We drove into Dadan to find lunch. There is a new part to the city, but there is also an old town centre, lived in for centuries and built of mud bricks. That was what the guide book said but in reality, it was a recently built retail opportunity, built to look old but all modern housing cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. Although it was lunch time, many of the shps were closed nd despite being billed as a popular place to visit, it was empty.

A public performing space.

Another view of the old town. 

A centre displaying various arts and crafts, and the opportunity to experience some hands on weaving, pottery, paiting, hiselling and other old crafts, familiar to former inhabitants...but closed, despite being a weekend.

More retail opportunities, also shut.

A walk through some of the old town, mostly rebuilt and more of a film set than original.

More views of alleys.

And decorative ceilings to alleys...

...pots and pans on the ceiling...

...before reching the fort on the top of the hill overlooking the old town...

...a view across the old mud brick town to the modern area.

More of the old town.

After lunch, we went back to the visitor centre at Dadan to transfer to coaches to take us to Hegra. This is a series of tombs carved ito the cliffs of large stone hills scattered across the desert and covering a large area, hence the need for transport.

First stop was  Jabal Ithlib.

This was where the elders met to discuss policy and pass laws inside a large cave.

By the side of the cave was a fissure in the rock, which had been widened to provide greater ventilation.

Next was the Jabal Al Banat.

There were severL ornate facades to tombs...

...but we were only able to enter one tomb, No. 26. Inside was very plain, chiselled walls with long low alcoves for bodies. Tere was just one tomb chamber per family. More alcoves were chiselled out as families expanded. When the last member of a family died, the tomb entrance was blocked up using stone. Whilst the family still existed, the door way was closed with a simple wooden door.

Thy believed in the after life, hence the steps motif at the top of the facade. There is an eagle carved at the apex of the door. Behind it is the name panel, which notes the name of the family that own that tomb.

Tomb of Lihyan, son of Kuza. It is a great facade, and the only tomb carved ibto this hill so he had the site to himself. But the sun was never in the right place...it would be in full sun in just half an hour but we didn't have time to wait;

Last was Jabal Al Ahmar, over seen by the outline of a face...

...facing the rock seen above...

...with several tombs carved into the rock...

...and then it was back to our bush camp in the wadi...the same as the previous night.