Rub al-Khali: The Emptiest Empty Quarter on Earth

I first learned about the Empty Quarter in my Mideast geography class in university.  It seemed like such a stark area with sand dunes the size of ships and no water except for a few oases.  It's the largest stretch of pure sand desert in the world.

When Meteb (my Mada'in Saleh guide) organized a tour to the Empty Quarter I knew I had to go.  He had never done a tour there or even been there before so it was a new experience for all of us.  On the way out I asked if he was nervous since we were all putting our lives in his hands and those of the Bedouin guides he had hired.  He admitted he was a little nervous.  We drove for a few hours southeast of Riyadh to the end of the road and the edge of the desert to make camp for the first night.

Riyadh is in the middle of the desert anyway but we said goodbye to the smallest of shrubs and dried twigs that were clinging to life.   The next morning we started driving through the Empty Quarter and I could see where it got its name.

It was very disorienting to have no frame of reference except the sun to know which direction you are going.  Luckily we had the Bedouin guides with us in the lead car and all the cars stayed within sight of each other.  Meteb said that the Bedouins were way better than any GPS system.

Soon off in the distance we saw a little tin shed.  We approached it, parked, and looked inside.  It turned out to be a well and one of the few sources of water for miles (besides our large stock of bottled water we were carrying with us).  I kept trying to ask how they are able to figure out where the water is when it's underground and the guide just said, "The Bedouin have their own ways of knowing how to find water."  I thought it was pretty amazing.

We continued driving and every now and then would stop to play on the sand dunes.  Even the drivers and guides had a good time.  Fun for Saudi men always seems to involve dangerous car stunts.

We found a guy herding camels but they didn't feel like sticking around to be in all the tourists' pictures.

Soon it was time for lunch and off in the distance we could see an oasis.  Each oasis is owned by a family and I liked to wonder how a particular family would come to 'own' an oasis.  Did somebody stumble upon it way back when, or was there bloodshed involved?  

This oasis had a big water storage container so they could water small crops and keep livestock.  We all got to taste the water that came straight out of the ground.  It tasted alright but I splashed most of it on myself instead of drinking it because it was so hot.  Notice the little patch of grass that grows where the water drips out.  I imagined how different the landscape would be with just a little bit of water.

The family that owned this oasis welcomed us there for lunch (prearranged by our guide, Meteb) but then they got into a little argument because the tour group had brought its own sheep to slaughter for lunch.  The poor little lamb was laying down in the back of one of the trucks and had no idea why it had been brought on the journey.  The guy who owned the oasis wanted to be able to show us true Arabian hospitality and slaughter an animal from his own herd to feed us.  He had his best camel picked out for the occasion but luckily he was eventually convinced to let us cook the lamb we had brought with us.  We relaxed under the trees while lunch was cooking as the men poured Arabic coffee and passed around sweet dates.  Notice none of the women are wearing the black abaya.  There are no religious police out in the desert and it was very relaxing.

Meanwhile I thought about the lamb and felt grateful for it.  I've never been able to fully commit to vegetarianism, but in Islam food and drink are to be treated with respect.  There are very strict rules about slaughtering animals and one is that the animal should be calm and not have any reason to suspect it is about to die.  The person must come at it from behind and slit the throat with one quick movement.  This is quite different from American slaughterhouse practices and although I didn't care to witness the actual slaughter, it was interesting to see the respect they gave to the animals that they consume.  But before we could eat, the noon prayer call was heard and we waited while some of the men prayed nearby.

I didn't get any pictures of the lunch but it was the traditional dish of lamb kabsa and I was impressed by the men's cooking skills.  They have to be good cooks out here because the women usually don't come out very often once the family has moved to the city.  After lunch we went on our way but the oasis owner volunteered to come with us and make sure we didn't lose our way while we were in his territory.  So we got to see some more sand.

At that point I just took my shoes off and didn't put them on again until the tour was over and we were back in the city.  The sand was so soft and warm.  It was still winter so it wasn't scorching hot yet.  In the evening we found a place to camp next to some huge dunes.  They were fun to climb and watch the sunset but with the wind blowing I didn't want my camera to get sand inside so I didn't get any pictures.  Then we sat around the campfire and cooked shish kababs made from the leftover lamb from earlier that day.

The next morning when I reached up to scratch my head all I could feel was sand.  The little grains of sand were so embedded in my scalp that they didn't come out until after a couple of long hot showers after I got back.  For the time being we just looked like we all had really bad dandruff.  We continued driving around finding bigger and better sand dunes and only got stuck in the sand a couple of times.  Everyone knows you never go out in the desert unless you have a caravan of many other 4 wheel drive cars with you and this is why.

In the afternoon we drove back to the main highway and stopped at a village to have lunch.  Our hosts were so happy to feed us a traditional meal from Saudi Arabia.  They passed around the Arabic coffee and sweet dates and then served a large delicious plate of steaming hot . . . . lamb kabsa.

It was still delicious even though I was getting tired of lamb.  It was a really nice trip and it's nice to get out and see other parts of the country besides just the city.  I feel like I've left my footprint in the sands of Arabia . . . . quite literally.

Janadriyah Cultural Festival

Every year in Riyadh the Janadriyah Festival comes to town.  There is a large fairground area outside the city that is only used once a year to host this.  People come in from all the different regions to showcase what their region is famous for.  I went with some teachers after school one day to check it out.  Here are people showing how to make baskets:

 Some people were doing pottery:

People from the Eastern province made their living by fishing and pearl diving so they showcased their ships and netting:

In the background a guy is playing a traditional musical instrument called the Rababah that was used by the Bedouins to help recount their poetry of love and war.  You can see the different displays of Saudi life:

There were many women's dresses showcased, and most were used out in the desert before the law came into effect that all women must wear the abaya:

 There was an old man spinning straw into thread to make hammock style beds:

 We ate some traditional food and wandered around.  Some women were selling little trinkets and it was fun to chat with people and make new friends.

 I also got a henna tattoo.  When a woman gets married her friends will put henna all over her arms and legs but I just wanted a little bit done.  During that week many of my students came to class with henna that they got from the festival.  It only lasts about 2 weeks before it fades and disappears:

 In another building there were men making all sorts of drinks and food.  I was given samples of sweet drinks and cookies made from the abundant dates and honey that this area is famous for.  There was a place to buy different varieties of dates:

 You could also get different kinds of honey from the mountains near the city of Abha.  The honey here is simply amazing:

 At the end of the night the dancers and drummers come out:

It was nice to be able to sit down and watch a show after walking around all day and I always learned new things about Saudi culture and customs at this festival.

The Camel Beauty Pageant

In December there was a big camel beauty pageant held in the desert outside of Riyadh.  The idea intrigued me so I joined a tour to go see what it was like.  It wasn't quite what I imagined a beauty pageant to be but it was still interesting.  We drove a few hours and soon we began to see people setting up tents.  Some tents are smaller canvas tents, but the black ones are made from camel hair and are still used by Bedouins today (and they are actually quite expensive to buy).

As we got closer we could see the big gates - even though there is no fence and the gates are in the middle of nowhere.  It's very typical for them to build something big and glorious that is in reality quite useless.

As we got closer it got more and more crowded and we saw very few women (except the ones from our tour group and a few selling things on the road.  There were all things related to camels.  Camels being hauled around in trucks:

People wearing camel skin coats:

People making (and shops selling) the harnesses and decorations to put on your camel:

And even I had to try on one of the camel coats.   I didn't buy anything because there is no way it would fit in my suitcase along with everything else and I'm sure very little of it is made from actual camel.

We got back on the bus and went out to where the pageant was held.  We drove through some more gates because only the judges and media were allowed in.  Our tour group got special permission since we are foreigners.  The judges all waved at our bus as we drove past them (and we made jokes about what scores we would get).

I thought it would be a pageant for individual camels but it turned out to be scored per herd.  Each day they score a different color of camel (white, black, brown, grey) and we were there on the day for white herds.

We couldn't understand anything the judges were saying so we don't know what kinds of scores each herd was getting but they were all beautiful to me (as far as camels go, anyway.)  After that we were taken to an area with some traditional tents set up for lunch.

  It does get cold in the winter so they had a fire and served tea and coffee before lunch.

They also had some camels for the kids to ride.  A lot of the adults also rode around, especially people who had never ridden a camel before.

Just before lunch they brought out a falcon and some very skinny hunting dogs.  They showed us how the falcon and the dogs work together to catch small desert animals.  Falconry is a big part of Arabian desert life.

Then we finally got to eat lunch.  There was a salad and dessert buffet and the main course was Kabsa, which is very typical food of flavorful rice with nuts and spices and raisins with roasted lamb on top.  You can also make it with chicken or even, you guessed it, camel.

We had the lamb and it was delicious!

Magnificent Mada'in Saleh

Back in November I went on a tour of Mada'in Saleh.  This is one of the few major tourist sites in Saudi Arabia and it was well worth the trip.  Mada'in Saleh is an ancient city and large cluster of tombs that were built by the Nabateans, who also built the rock city of Petra in Jordan.  I really enjoyed seeing Petra back in 2003 so I was curious to see its sister-city.  Our group met at the airport and we flew to the holy city of Medina. 

Both Mecca and Medina are closed to non-Muslims but the airport of Medina is outside the city so we were able to land and take a bus along the outskirts.  The 'Haram' area is the 'restricted' area that we were not allowed in.  The word 'harem' is related to this word because it was the sanctuary where the women were kept and strange men were not allowed in.

 Our guide, Meteb, was wonderful and one of the few really hard-working, open-minded Saudis that I've met here.  He did everything he could to make our tour informative and enjoyable.

Our first stop was Al-Ula which was the ancient capital of the Dedanites.  The city is built along a green oasis valley.  It's like walking through a mud brick maze straight out of Arabian Nights.  They are making an effort to preserve and restore it so it was fun to wander around.

After lunch we drove out to Mada'in Saleh and wandered around the tombs.  Some were more isolated but with spectacular carvings.  Interestingly enough, not many Saudis come here.  There is something in the Qur'an that talks about this city becoming prideful and rejecting the prophets.  It is said that if you travel here you need to do it with a sad heart for those who rejected Allah.  And really, who wants to go to a tourist destination where you are supposed to be sad the whole time?

 Most of the tombs were built into existing rock cliffs.

Each building was built by a family and it served to house the remains of generations of that family.  So the inside felt more tomb-like with individual coffin holes in the walls.  I'm not sure if the small holes are for children or for artifacts they wanted buried with them.  Either way, the people must have been much smaller back then.

At the entrance to the tourist area there is an old Hejaz railway station that was built between 1901 and 1908.  The Ottomans built a railway line from Damascus to Medina that would have extended down to Mecca but World War I broke out and T.E. Lawrence and the Arab revolt kept blowing it up. 

The next day we went out in 4X4s and drove over some big sand dunes and through red rock canyons.  But first we had to let the air out of the tires so they could drive through the sand easier.

I didn't really get pictures of that because we were bouncing around so much.  The next stop after that was a large rock formation called "Elephant Rock."  You can see why.

On the way back to the airport we stopped at the ancient ruins of Tayma which was a big center of activity along the spice trade routes.  Some artifacts have been found from places as far away as Babylon and ancient Egypt that were brought from travelers passing through.  It most likely would have been a stop for Lehi and family.

In fact many of these places are mentioned in the Bible (such as Jeremiah 25:23).  It was a fun trip and it was nice to get out of Riyadh and see a bit of the northwestern part of Saudi Arabia.