WADI RUM, HOME TO LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

Nia S. Amira
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Wadi Rum also known as The Valley of the Moon Arabic is a val­ley cut into the sand­stone and granite rock in. Having four seasons climate like the land in the west, Jordan indeed is a very beautiful land on the banks of the Mediterranean sea.

I was captured by a 5 star tent in the desert with a big body man, called Shabullah helped me around getting this and that in that cold evening, I felt like some where in Mars.

The name of Wadi Rum most likely comes from an Aramaic root meaning ‘High’ or ‘elevated’.To catch its proper Arabic pronun­ciation, archaeologists even tran­scribe it as Wadi Ramm.

The highest elevation in Jordan is Jabal Umm ad Dami at 1,840 m (6,040 ft) high, located 30 kilome­tres south of Wadi Rum village. If we were lucky, we can be able to see a Zalabia Bedouin from Rum. On a clear day, it is possible to see the Red Sea and the Saudi border from the top.

Wadi Rum is home to the Za­labia Bedouin who works with climbers and trekkers, have made a success of developing eco-ad­venture tourism and now as their main source of income. The area is now one of Jordan’s important tourist destinations, and attracts an increasing number of foreign tourists, particularly trekkers and climbers, but also for camel and sa­fari horses or simply day-trippers from Aqaba or Petra. Popular ac­tivities in the desert environment include camping under the stars, riding Arab horses, hiking and rock-climbing among the massive rock formations. ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) and Jeeps are also avail­able and new camps have opened that offer adequate accommoda­tion for tourists.

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.