From Taif, we drove on a good road toward Albaha. Unfortunately, not every fuel station in Saudi Arabia sells diesel. Of course, the last gasoline station in Taif selling diesel we missed. We had just a few liters left, but luckily, we hit a large station after 40 kilometers. We took a...
Bakhrosh bin Allas al-Qurashi al-Zahrani (1757-1815) was a knight and military commander from the Zahran tribe in the Hijaz who fought alongside the first Saudi State against the Ottomans. In his times, he was called the Arab Tiger and was one of the wisest Wahhabi leaders. Arabs have...
We just drove through Taif, located at an elevation of 1,879 meters on the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains. Unfortunately, there is little to see, so we only stopped by the Jabra historic palace. Palace has three floors and a grand foyer, and It was built during the reign of the founding...
Winding Al-Hada Road reaches up to 2,177 meters above sea level, so we planned to take a scenic 23 km-long dual highway passing through the high Hijaz Mountains and take some photos. But to our surprise, the police officer at the gate in Al-Hada didn’t allow us to go there with our...
It is the largest and deepest volcanic crater on the Harrat Kishb basalt plateau. Al-Wa’bah Crater is 250 m deep and is 2 km in diameter. It is surrounded by Al Luhayan, Umm Rilan, and Zabna mountains, forming a scenic view. The bottom of the crater is covered with white sodium...
Traditionally, the Bedouin livelihood primarily involved the herding of sheep, goats, and camels that provided meat, milk products, and wool. We did not know that Saudis traditionally import camels from North Africa. And because of the combination of disease, drought, and political...
We spent a few days in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia, located in the center of the an-Nafud desert. It is home to Saudi Arabia’s best museum, a World Heritage Site related to the Kingdom’s Genesis story, and some of the...
Today morning, we refilled our fresh water tank with the great help of Bangladeshi workers taking care of the park at Qaryat Al Ulya. After that, we drove nearly a whole day on a much shorter road, 550, to Riyadh. Unfortunately, there was not much to see except some lovely landscapes...
Ras al-Khafji is a town on the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It lies in what was, before 1970, the Saudi Arabian–Kuwaiti neutral zone. It was pretty easy to cross the border. On the Kuwaiti side, we just stamped the passport and CPD and left the border within minutes. On Saudi...
After lengthy procedures at the border (see below), we arrived in the capital of Kuwait. The city lies on the southern shore of Kuwait Bay of the Persian Gulf. City was founded at the beginning of the 18th century by a group of families who migrated to the coast from the interior of the...