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.