After over two years of living in Jordan, last week we finally visited one of the most famous places in the country--the desert of Wadi Rum. As soon as we entered it, I wondered why it took that long.
Located in the very south of Jordan, Wadi Rum is a unique desert wilderness of about 420 square miles. Wadi means "valley" in Arabic, and the wide and flat desert of fine, red sand is surrounded on each side by tall, mountainous outcrops, many shooting straight up to the sky. There are also many places where the wind has created large sand dunes that rest like giant waves, frozen against these rocky walls. Amazingly, until recently the desert was home to seven nomadic tribes--Bedouins--who lived off of and roamed the area with their goat herds, living in huge tents made of goat hair. There is even a phrase in Arabic for this type of tent--beit shar--which literally means house of hair.
We drove out in a jeep and spent the night with a local guide who said there were about 20 families who still lived in the desert. He was 28 years old, and said his family came in from the desert to live in the small village of about 1000 people on the western edge when he was 20. He said he didn't like the village as much as the desert, though. Too noisy. Click on this link to find out more about Wadi Rum. It's difficult to describe how truly beautiful and different it is, so here are some pictures of our trip.
From the bottom of a sand dune, and the next two are from the top.
Carvings of camels, said to be about 3,000 years old.
Some Saudi Arabian friends and relatives of our guide arriving to spend the night at our campsite.
They eventually brought out the biggest argileh we had ever seen.
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