WADI RUM, HOME TO LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

The Bedouin have climbed in the Sandstone mountains of Wadi Rum for many generations. Many of their ‘Bedouin Roads’ have been rediscovered and documented by modern climbers. Several are includ­ed in the climbing guidebook by Tony Howard, and online by Liên and Gilles Rappeneau

Jabal Ram or Jebel Rum (1,734 metres (5,689 ft) above sea level) is the second highest peak in Jordan and the highest peak in the central Rum, rising di­rectly above Rum valley, opposite Jebel Um Ishrin.

Khaz’ali Canyon in Wadi Rum is the site of petro­glyphs etched into the cave walls depicting humans and antelopes dating back to the Thamudic times. The village of Wadi Rum itself consists of several hundred Bedouin inhabitants with their goat-hair tents and concrete houses and also their four-wheel vehicles, one school for boys and one for girls, a few shops, and the headquarters of the Desert Patrol.

Back to 1949 Sheikh Hamdan took surveyors to the summit of Jabal Ram. The first recorded Europe­an ascent of Jabal Ram took place in November 1952, by Charmian Longstaff and Sylvia Branford, guided by Sheik Hamdan.

I was standing in the middle of desert, no idea why I was there? The only feeling I have that time was amazing and curious of one mountain area which was filmed under the Title of Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean in 1962.