Ancient Nabataean tombs

Trip Start Dec 23, 2007

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

Madain Saleh Hotel and Resort

(Tabouk hotels)

Flag of Saudi Arabia Madain Saleh, Saudi Arabia
Friday, November 13, 2009

Madain Saleh (مدائن صالح), aka Al-Hijr, is a pre-Islamic ancient city in northern Saudi (estimated at around 4th century BC). It's importance lied in being linked to the old trade routes to Syria, Egypt, and even back to Mesopotamia. It was created by the Nabataeans (1st century BC), who also built the ancient capital of Petra.

It has a long an intriguing history, the most interesting, to me, is that many Muslims believe the place ot be cursed and refuse to go there! Apparently, the Qur’an states that the tribes living there fell into idol worship and that a prophet asked then to repent and sent them a pregnant camel as a peace offering. The sacred animal was killed and consumed by the local! As punishment, it is said that Allah struck the village with earthquakes and lightning bolts, destroying all non-believers. So, many Muslims believe the place to be haunted by those spirits and it has a very superstitious reputation

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Anyways, enough history! We headed out to MS, by police escort of course. After some typical Saudi bureaucracy, we entered the rocky dirt roads and rumbled our way around the archaeological site. Not much to say really, tombs, tombs, everywhere tombs! Amazing scenery and sites! It has these amazing enormous sandstone rock formations set in the midst of golden sand dunes. The landscape is stark, yet breathtaking...the emptiness of the land being dispelled only by its beauty. In general, the tombs are grouped together, carved into the rocky/hillside/mountain formations. The dry desert air helps preserve them and most entrances to the tombs have intricate carvings of faces, flowers (a carving of a rose signifies a place of animal sacrifice), and other symbols. We hopped from a few tomb sites, to the old train station, to the Diwan, a magnificent area, seemingly like a canyon because it is enclosed by gigantic formations. In here we hiked and rock scrambled all over. A few of us climbed up to a small area that had pertroglyphs and OLD Islamic writings carved into the rock. After that, we toured a few more tombs and then visited the Unique, Qasr al Farid, given its name as it's
completely isolated from the other tombs. I found this place to be the most impressive as it was carved out of one giant formation, its isolation from all others makes it seem like a place of great importance (whether it was or not).

Definitely a must-see place if you're ever in KSA!