Mad'in Saleh Trip Day 2

Last week I posted about a trip last month and challenged folks to identify the structure in the image below. My wonderful daughter Shannon came closest with " I'm guessing the circles in the sand are from some kind of plate that was set down during a meal break... Either that or desert 'crop' circles!"  No, not a plate imprint, but it is a kind of crop circle.

If you click on the image to see it full size you'll be able to see what I mean, but I am calling this a Wind Circle.  The grooves are dug by the plant as the wind rotates the plant in a full circle! These are very cool and I've seen several of them - fortunately sometimes I look down while walking!

The second day of this trip started with an SUV trip into the desert. We started from the hotel at dawn and had breakfast in an amazing canyon at 0900.  I don't know a name for where we went, but it was just outside the town of Al Ula, and only a few miles from Mad'in Saleh. It is surprising how much life is out here in the sand! It didn't matter where we went there were some amazing plants - some tiny, some big trees, sometimes just a wispy bit of green but there would be so much a whole field area would be tinged with it. It was an amazing place to see.

         

The sand in some places is hundreds of feet deep and completely buries the mountains, and we were just racing all over, up and down these dunes. There were seven cars with experienced drivers, and it was more fun than I expected it to be, especially when we lined up at the top edge of a dune and then raced down. Quite a ride!

This whole place was amazing - in some areas it looked like the Grand Canyon in the U.S., just not as deep, but the canyons went on for miles.  In other places the erosion patterns reminded me of Bryce Canyon in Zion National Park in the U.S. - tall pillars eroded out of the mountain and standing alone. Very impressive place.

We had a traditional Arabic breakfast in a canyon, on carpets. It was simple fare but delicious after being up and very busy for many hours already!  But everyone was game and we had a great time.

 After breakfast we headed back to another area of tombs, in the mountains overlooking Al Ula. These were situated high up on the cliff face, just rectangular openings chiseled out. At this point it was midday and very hot - which is why we started at dawn so we could a large part of the day done before the heat set in. Lunch was in the middle of a date palm plantation at the edge of Al Ula, and it was delightful under the trees, sitting on red carpets laid out for us, and eating grilled kabobs and vegetables with slaw, beans, and macaroni and cheese!

In case you missed the video in the last entry, click on the palm trees above to view it here!  After lunch we reloaded the bus and headed for the city of Ha'il about 3.5 hours away to start the flights back to Dammam, and I arrived back in my room just after midnight. This was an aggressive trip, and physically demanding, but wow did we pack a lot in!!  If you are in Saudi Arabia and wish to see the country, I highly recommend the tour operator who put the trip together, www.amazingtours.info, and look forward to my next opportunity to travel with them! #Mada'in Saleh  #Saudi Arabia

My Trip to Mad'in Saleh

Trip to where?? In the northwest part of Saudi Arabia is a World Heritage Site, Mad'in Saleh (lots of ways to spell this, and more ways to pronounce it - the closest I can get is "medeheen sally").  It was the Southern end of the Nabatean empire, of which Petra was the capital.  Many months ago I saw an announcement for a tour, and having been to Petra while in high school, I very much wished to see this historic site.

It was a busy weekend about a month ago. I had to leave my hotel in Dhahran at 0330 to catch a flight to Madinah, then we took a bus north for 3.5 hours to the small town of Al Ula, where we also spent the night. There were about 40 of us on the tour, all expats working in KSA from all over the world - Brazil, Australia, Ireland, Portugal, and the U.S. It was a pretty good group!

We stopped first at a place called Elephant Rocks - can't image where they got such a silly name - because it was on the way into town where we had lunch.  This structure is fantastic, and I'm guessing around 150 feet tall. Pretty good appetizer for the rest of the trip!

Mad'in Saleh, like Petra, is known for structures carved from stone. I mean as in pick a mountain and carve away everything that doesn't look like a temple facade!  They started at the top and carved away til they reached the bottom. Stunning workmanship, too - these were plumb and square and level, and the detail was amazing. All carved out, with hammer and chisel,
before the time of Christ.

And these were not homes - these are tombs and monuments to honor a family or king. They all face into a circular area, and the residents built homes of stone in that space. I guess you could say they were family oriented.  The image below is one of my favorites from the trip - can anyone guess what this is? Send me your guess in a comment and I'll announce the winners in my next post (which will cover day 2 of the weekend!)

We spent the afternoon at Mad'in Saleh, then late afternoon at a spot nearby - more on that in the next post. And don't worry, it wasn't too hot. I think it stayed in the low 100s, so it was very comfortable. I only really felt hot one time at about noon of the second day. Here is a group shot at the main monument at Mad'in Saleh.

And one more for all my adoring fans:

If you've read this far, thank you! I have a treat as a reward! I have too many beautiful images to share, and can't share enough to do justice to the amazing places I've seen, so I am going to try something new. I had forgotten that Dana and I have a subscription to a great service for making videos, but decided to make one with my favorites from this trip. I'm not sure if this will work or not, but please click on the image below and let me know what you think! If this works well, I'll go back and maybe make some more of these - after writing about the rest of this trip. Best to all, Mark

#Mada'in Saleh  #Saudi Arabia   #desert photos