"Stunning!" a Wadi Rum Travel Page by angiebabe

Someone had said to me a few days before arriving in Jordan for my first visit to this country, and to Wadi Rum, which I didnt know much about and had only had photos to get an idea in hindsight almost impossible to catch the actual awesomeness and stunningness of this place, as over rated!!

Beautiful colours and mountains in a wonderful array of shapes and forms - eroded by the wind. This is such a stunning place!

Now a nature reserve it was once the transit point between ARabia and Palestine. Several springs flow into Wadi Tum allowing patches of vegetation to grow and so the wadi became an obligatory stopping point for the caravans carrying spices and incense from the kingdom of Sheba - now modern day Yemen - to the ports of the Mediterannean.

Lawrence of Arabia was here during World War I when he was English Major Lawrence fighting side by side with the rebels of Emir Hussein I from 1916 to 1918. and so Wadi Rum now also stands as a symbol of national Jordanian independence.
It was here that he conceived his memoirs 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom', in which he described the wild beauty of this refuge.

The wide valley of Wadi Rum is one of the most famous and best loved places in Jordan. The valley is formed by the confluence of ancient wadi - ie torrential river beds - surrounded by steep walls, pinnacles and rocky outcrops.
The 2 largest peaks in the country - Jebel Rum and Jebel Umm Ishrin - can be seen in the distance.

The Nabateans were here as were the Romans but there are rock carvings in the area which indicate human presence as far back as the Palaeolithic era.

Present day inhabitants of Wadi Rum are the Bedouin who breed goats and dromedaries and whose young men form the back bone of the legendary Desert Police (see also tips in Petra of Desert police seen there).

Included in our tour was much appreciated tea in a bedouin tent.