Day 262: Wadi Rum

Dec 21 - Before I show the wonders of Wadi Rum, I will first drag you through the geological history of it.

The extensive sandstone formations that constitute almost all of the mountains and cliffs we see here are Cambrian to Silurian in age, forming about 500-400 million years ago. They were laid down on an eroded surface of granite, which I saw evidence of only near where we entered the park through Wadi Rum Village. The sandstones are up to 300 meters thick from what I can see, and are listed as fluvial (river formed). I see some beds in the upper part of the sequence that look aeolian (wind formed).

This extensive deposition, extending from here north and west to Petra, occurred when this region was contiguous with the African continent and sea levels were much higher. However, sea levels dropped and the Red Sea rift opened much later*, creating a nearby tear in the crust that triggered accelerated erosion of everywhere nearby. That is just physics: if you make a hole in the earth’s surface, gravity will try to fill it with the surrounding material. The result is the dramatic topography now seen, known in technical terms as a peneplain. The interesting thing from a visual standpoint is that these sandstone beds are flat-lying, having never been tilted or folded since the Cambrian.

*Much later means the Eocene (50 million years ago) and episodes of rifting after that. The current rate of opening is about 1 cm/year.

We take a full day jeep tour with our camp hosts. Six of us cram into the back of a pickup truck: the French family and us. First stop is Lawrence Spring, very close to the Wadi Rum Village.

First stop is to look at some petroglyphs. Some modern graffiti here as well, but a few remnants of pre-historic animal and human forms.

Climb up to a spring, located where the rock scramble meets a vertical cliff.

Water flows out of cracks here and makes a thin line of vegetation.

Odette had no problem clambering up the rocks to this spring.

Our guide Na’ul.

The camel’s legs have been painted with henna.

We were all offered rides, but in the end only Odette did it. Now she can say she has ridden both a bactrian camel (two humped) and a dromedary (one hump).

I did a search and yes, they did film some exterior footage for the movie ‘The Martian’ here. However, there are so many small bushes in the valleys that I’m not sure exactly where they could have done it.

On to Al-Khazali Valley, a very narrow split in the cliff wall where water has historically collected and made it a popular site from pre-historic times. As such, a number of different petroglyphs and assorted old graffiti have been left on the walls.

This is an example of the earliest type, probably from the Neolithic, showing a couple and a pair of well-carved feet below, along with small animals.

Some crude animal forms, along with writing that is a South Safaitic (also called Hismaic) script. The writing gives the name of the people who engraved the animals.

More recent writing, this time in Kufic (an early form of Arabic where no dots are emplaced above or below the letters). Most of the writing of this type found in Wadi Rum relate either Qur’anic passages or record the death of well-known people.

This gives a sense of how narrow Al-Khazali is.

Odette with her new friend Manou.

There are a number of rock bridges in Wadi Rum. This one is called The Little Bridge.

This mountainside, littered with cairns, was above what is called ‘Lawrence’s House’. There are several places here that reference Lawrence of Arabia, though most are probably imaginative fiction. In this case the house was a jumble of rocks that I didn’t feel like taking a picture of.

Here Odette and Janet see a collared lizard.

We stop for lunch along the edge of the valley. Na’ul cooks up a big meal of hummus, babaganoosh, salad, and soup. Plenty more than we can eat.

On to Mushroom Rock.

At Mushroom Rock was some of the best examples of cross-bedding I saw today.

A small wadi across from Al-Burdah Rock Bridge.

The entrance to Wadi Abu Khashabah.

Where there is a lot of shelter from sun, some larger plants grow.

The exit (east side) of Wadi Abu Khashabah. There was a spot here were sandboarding took place. Odette did a few runs.

Janet below one of the last stops of the day, Um Frouth Bridge.

Hard to tell, but it is Odette and I on top of Um Frouth Bridge.

Near sunset.

A small camel train.

Late afternoon sunset viewing from a rocky prominence in the valley before going back to camp. Not so many people here tonight, play some card games. Have another long conversation with Dan the Czech backpacker, touching on such themes as the fragility of democracy, how we know what the core of the Earth looks like, and Dyson spheres. All of this without the help of the shisha pipe.

Really need to layer on the blankets tonight, as the tents offer protection from wind but are more or less ambient outside temperature.

Jordan