 Wadi Rum
| Some 70 kilometers northeast of Aqaba lies
Wadi Rum, a vast silent place that is both romantic and extremely beautiful.Massive
mountains rise vertically out of the pink desert sand, which separate one
dark mass from another. The faces of these sheer rock cliffs have been
eroded by the wind into faces of men, animals and monsters. Everywhere
in this strange and empty place are indications of man's presence since
the earliest known times. Scattered around are flint hand axes, while on
the rocks at the feet of the mountains the names of ancient travellers
are scratched. In the center of the valley an elaborately carved temple
bears witness that Wadi Rum was once a holy place for Nabateans. |
| Today the major distraction in route to Aqaba
is the fabled Wadi Rum. As you near Wadi Rum, look to the left or to the
north,and you will see the Seven Pillars of Wisdom. These natural columns
are Huge and vary in height. The true size of the mountains at Wadi Rum
is only realized when a human or animal form gives the vastness of perspective.
Life does not seem to have changed in Rum for a long time. The pace is
slow and tourist activities tend to centre on the rest house. No more than
a cluster of Bedouin tents and basic houses make up Rum. |
There is no feeling to compare with being in
the wilderness, with pinkish sand beneath your feet and no sound but the
wind cutting across the surface of the rocks.
Daybreak at Wadi Rum must surely be one of
life's greatest experiences. A landscape whose likeness seems more lunar
than earthly. With its rosy, yet pallid, complexion, the sky is vast and
seems as forbidding as the wilderness beneath it. |
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As you enter Rum you will pass the small fort
which looks best for Beau Geste. It is home to the elite Desert Patrol,
whose corps watch over Jordan's eastern deserts. Visitors are always welcomed
and, in the ritualistic fashion of the desert, offered a cup of cardamom
flavored coffee or hot sweet tea.
Wadi Rum's immensity is hard to leave. The
longer time you spend there the more you become attached to it and the
more you long for it when you have gone. The valley of the Moon makes man
tremble at the power and majesty of Nature.
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