Saudi Arabia is Islam’s birthplace and spiritual home, represented by the cities of Mecca and Medina. The country is rich in attractions, from echoes of “Lawrence of Arabia” along the Hejaz Railway to the sculpted red dunes of romantic deserts with the carved temples of Madain Saleh, known as the second Petra, and the sophisticated rock art at Jubbah. The pristine, azure waters of the Red Sea ache to be explored. In the south, the jewel in the Kingdom’s crown, Asir, reveals breathtaking mountain scenery where mysterious and spectacular villages wait to be discovered.
Buraydah is a town in north-central Saudi Arabia. It is 650 meters above sea level in the largest valley of Saudi Arabia, the 600 km long Wadi al-Rummah. It has long been a commercial rival of ʿUnayzah to the south, at one time controlling the export of Arab horses and monopolizing the...
Nestled between Mount Shammer to the north and Mount Salma to the south, the city of Hail was once the capital of all the Arabian Desert and home to legends like Hatem Al Tai, the Arabian poet whose altruism earned him spots in stories like “One Thousand and One Nights.” As an...
Already second Continental tyre exploded during our ride to the forgotten house of Hatem Al Tai – a symbol of generosity and chivalry. Hatem Al Tai (died 578) was an Arab poet of the Tai tribe who lived in the region of the Aja and Salma mountains, currently known as Hail, in...
The oasis Jubbah lies on the old caravan road linking Dumat Al-Jandal with Ha’il, surrounded by the vast Nefud Desert. Jubbah is surrounded by large sandstone outcrops filled with ancient petroglyphs and inscriptions on the rock face. The carvings found on the Jibal Umm Sinman cover...
Our last stop today was Sakākā, an oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It lies on an old caravan route from the Mediterranean Sea coast to the central and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Sakākā lies north of the desert of Al-Nafūd and northeast of the Al-Jawf oasis. Nowadays, it...
Finally, we arrived at the ruins of ancient Dumatha, nowadays Dumat al-Jundal, located in North Western Saudi Arabia in the Al Jawf Province. It is the largest and best-known oasis at the northern limit of the great al-Nafud desert. The city has a history dating back to the 10th century...
We stopped in Tabūk, an oasis city in northwestern Saudi Arabia, for several hours. The city is situated amid a grove of date palms. Unfortunately, it was Friday today, so the city was deserted, and nearly everything was closed. Still, we walked from the Turkish fort built in 1694 in the...
We drove to the city of Al-Bada’, where 2017 started excavations of the ancient city of Madyan. It is located in the Wadi’ Afal, a broad, 50-kilometer-long valley oriented north-south that connects the Levant (Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine) to the western shore of Arabia and its...
We planned to drive from Catalina Seaplane Wreckage on a scenic coastal road toward Georgios G. Shipwreck. However, just a few kilometers before the shipwreck, we hit a checkpoint created by Special Forces for Environmental Security (SFES), and that was the end of our plan. They did not...
We came across the wreck of a 1930s World War II Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina United States Navy seaplane marooned on the Red Sea coast near the cape of Ras Al-Sheikh Hameed in the northwest province of Tabuk. The plane was bought from the US Navy by Thomas W. Kendall, a 44-year-old...