Wadi Rum Desert

The Wadi Rum Desert is a protected area covering 720 square Km in the south of Jordan.

There you'll find huge sheer sided pink sandstone and granite mountains reaching heights of up to 1700 meters separated by wide sandy valleys.
There are many canyons and fissures cut deep into the mountains that you can hike through and see 4000 year old nabetean drawings etched into the rock.

 

Also known as ‘The Valley of the Moon’, this is the place where Prince Faisal Bin Hussein and T.E. Lawrence based their headquarters during the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in World War I.

Many Bedouin tribes still call the Wadi rum Desert their home and a lot of them today make their living through tourism. We spent 2 days and 2 nights in the desert at the camp of a Bedouin family that runs Wadi Rum tours.

2400 year old etchings

The first day was spent exploring the desert by camel, the second day by jeep. At night we would sit by the fire, drink Bedouin tea (black tea with lots of sugar and fresh thyme leaves: very addicting!) and they would cook us a spectacular feast.
The specialty is zarb: they dig a hole in the sand and fit in a metal circular drum, a 3 tiers metal rack in inserted with hot coals on the bottom and the meat/veggies on the upper racks...then it is buried and left for several hours to cook...the food was really great!

 

We had a great time but were glad to get to Aqaba yesterday to have a much needed shower! One more day here in Aqaba to sun ourselves and snorkel in the Red Sea before we cross the border into Israel and fly to Tel Aviv.

Hiking through a canyon.

Our guide Mohammed.

Posing on a rock bridge