Moon Valley Safari: Wadi Rum Desert. Wadi Rum Nature Reserve (Jordan). Introduction and general provisions

The Bedouins living in the Wadi Rum valley have their main income from tourists, so they run souvenir shops, cafes and even something like hotels - in Bedouin tents. Perhaps someone will like such exoticism in the style of Lawrence of Arabia, while others will feel more comfortable spending the night in a car. Wadi Rum is already a traditional place for tourists to visit, so every year there are more places to stay here with an acceptable level of comfort, but the accommodation is still in the same tents. The Bedouin Traditions Camp, for example, looks simply like a long barracks with two rows of bunks with blankets and pillows along the walls, decorated, however, very beautifully. In the evenings, local Bedouins can try zarb, a dish similar to Central Asian pilaf, but prepared in a pit covered with sand and hot coals.

Entry (or entry) into the reserve for one day costs 5 dinars (approximately 450 rubles in 2016), but when driving your car, you need to register - you may have to pay extra for an overnight stay and a second day. Additional expenses may include the purchase of souvenirs, a traditional Bedouin lunch, and, for the sake of exoticism, a camel ride. We do not recommend riding camels around the entire route - without getting used to it, this is a very tiring task.

When traveling around the valley by car on your own, it is better to stick to the recommended routes - they usually warn you about this. Organized excursions usually cover four or five places, offer to take photographs, buy souvenirs, and complete the journey in six to seven hours. Free excursions by taxi or on your own are not limited in time. The set of souvenirs for Jordan is quite standard, the only thing that can be mentioned are bas-reliefs of Lawrence of Arabia and, if you're lucky, shell casings from British rifles from the time of the Arab Revolt.

The history of these places is not very eventful. Wadi Rum is located close to the border with Saudi Arabia, in deserted and sparsely populated areas. Since time immemorial, caravans from Palestine and Syria to Arabia have passed through Wadi Rum with its water sources. The Bedouins here lead the same lifestyle as they did a thousand years ago. Neither the desert, nor the housing, nor the cuisine changes. The only things that have increased are cars, televisions and tourists. There is also the only railway in Jordan. It connects industrial areas with the port of Aqaba, and is not used for passenger transport.

The name of the famous British intelligence officer, philologist and ethnographer Thomas Edward Lawrence (of Arabia) is also associated with Wadi Rum. The Arab Liberation Army troops were based in the deserts of eastern Jordan during the Arabian Revolt of 1916-1918. Lawrence of Arabia was an adviser to the army commander, Prince Faisal, who fought against the Turks. Lawrence mentioned this place in his book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” and described its splendor. There is indeed a rock in the valley with seven ledges, “Seven Pillars,” but it is difficult to say whether the book is named after the rock or the rock is named after the book.

Wadi Rum contains the highest mountains in Jordan - up to 1830 meters. The official poster at the entrance to Wadi Rum names 19 sites for public inspection. This includes the spring and Lawrence's house, two observation platforms where it is convenient to watch the sunrise, rock bridges - Jebel, Burda and Little bridges, the "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", the Nabatean pillar, dunes, rocks with rock paintings. Near these places, Bedouin tents are grouped, where they feed, pour tea and sell souvenirs.

The main impression is made not by any specific objects, but by the general grandeur, beauty and silence of these places. Along the way, the color of the rocks changes - from black to soft pink, rocks of gray perforated sandstone are replaced by black-green basalt outcrops covered with ripples. The landscape is such that there is nothing to compare it with, which is why associations with other planets come to mind. It’s no wonder that several science fiction films have been filmed here. Indeed, it is enough to go behind the rock and you find yourself, as if on another planet, in complete solitude and silence, which very soon becomes frightening.

But, watching the sunset and sunrise, you experience fantastic delight and begin to understand the Bedouins, who do not want to change their way of life for anything in the world and do not even believe that they can live differently somewhere. The best time to visit Wadi Rum is spring, when everything is in bloom. The desert is covered with poppies, anemones and black irises - the national flowers of Jordan. Regarding the rock inscriptions, it is believed that they were left by the Nabateans about two thousand years ago and, judging by the fact that archaeologists do not work here, they do not carry any special scientific discoveries.

Separately, we can mention two more exotic activities. This includes rock climbing and hot air ballooning. There are few climbing routes in Wadi Rum, but those that exist are very popular among European and Israeli climbers. The geology here is very unusual - the mountains are made of dense cemented sandstone, which slips little and is therefore less dangerous to climb. Also, the frequent gaps in the rocks here are very helpful when climbing. Several 300 - 500 meter routes of varying degrees of difficulty have been developed and equipped - from minimal to 5b. In tourist shops you can find complete descriptions of climbing routes in English.

Balloon flights are organized in the spring - from April to May and in the fall - from September to December, always in the early morning - this is probably due to the movement of air currents. For such a flight you will definitely have to spend the night in Wadi Rum.

When going on an excursion, in addition to the standard traveler's kit - water, packed rations, glasses, camera, special attention should be paid to shoes. Moving along the valley, you have to go up and down sandy slopes, so you need shoes with thick soles that fit your feet well. Then your feet will get stuck in the sand less and the sand will not burn your feet. Some enthusiasts bring snowboards with them to hit the slopes, but these can also be found among the Bedouins if desired.

For those planning to visit Petra ( Wadi Musa) or relax on the Jordanian shore of the Red Sea in Akabe I can recommend a day trip to the desert Wadi Rum.
The desert is not quite ordinary. In the usual philistine view, the desert is sand dunes stretching beyond the horizon, snakes gliding along them, the scorching sun, and somewhere behind the neighboring dune the head of the buried Said sticks out.

I apologize – I watched “White Sun of the Desert” on the plane.
Well, the Wadi Rum desert is the mountains that rise from the horizon after 40 minutes of driving along the asphalt highway Aqaba - Amman. As you approach them, you notice that these mountains are not just a bunch of brown heaps, reminiscent of heaps of guano of giant dinosaurs, which is how mountains usually look in these places, but something unusual...

How to get to Wadi Rum

From Aqaba, drive north about 80 km (40 minutes of brisk driving).
From Petra, drive south towards Aqaba and turn left after about an hour's drive.
I can recommend this route for the day:

Option for visiting Jordan (1 day)

In the morning, while it’s not too hot, you’ll explore Petra, and at 13:00 in the afternoon, you’ll start for Aqaba, stopping along the way at Wadi Rum for a safari along the Moon Valley between beautiful rocks.
Why do I recommend it? Because I did it myself and was very pleased:

– It’s very hot in Petra after 12:00 and there’s nothing to do – there are a lot of tourists and flies
– Without getting too tired, after 1-1.5 hours you are already in Wadi Rum and having examined the tent camp of tourists who pay a lot of money to spend the night in a place where the night temperature after +35 drops 30 degrees down.
– after driving and photographing the rocks and surrounding landscapes, you go to spend the night in a normal hotel on the shores of the Red Sea in Aqaba.

Climate and temperature in Wadi Rum

I have already mentioned the difference between night and day temperatures.
What's the climate like? Of course, deserted and dry. There is no rainy season here
Wind. The wind is hot, burning dry and sandy.

Where to stay in Wadi Rum

I don't think it's a good idea to stay overnight in these places.
But if you are still a fan of the hardships of tent life and evening boredom without the Internet and the joys of the city, beach, and forest, you can stay in one of the many tent cities.
There are 3-star camping towns, and 5-star camping towns.

In general, this will be a tent made of felt, in which you will have a bed and a candle.
The toilet and shower will be located in a separate large tent. And they will be pretty clean.
You will eat at common tables where socializing reigns and you will have to meet unfamiliar crazy people, with whom you will have to smile and say “how good the Bedouins and this desert are.”

Well, watch some stupid amateur concerts.
If you want, stay the night. But I advise you to come here for a day and spend the night in a normal hotel or in Aqaba or Wadi Musa (Petra)

What to do in Wadi Rum

After visiting the campsite, I suggest taking a jeep safari with a Bedouin at the wheel.
The Bedouins in these places already speak reasonable English and hire Egyptians to do dirty work.
By the way: the government of Jordan builds free houses for the Bedouins and the Bedouins in Jordan no longer roam the desert with sheep, but send Egyptians to do this for a salary.

Rent a jeep and drive to the center of the mountain ranges. I don't remember the names, but they are all beautiful. And they are beautiful in their own way, depending on the time - the sun illuminates these reddish sandstone rocks blown by the sandblast wind so that the relief of the rocks resembles either Rafaelo candy or Dutch cheese.

By the way, when you approach the place and turn off the “desert highway” into the desert, you will see the most beautiful mountain in the region - Seven Pillars of Wisdom, similar to the thickets of the Egyptian pyramids. There is one more attraction - Burda rock bridge, but it takes about 2 hours to get there.

The Bedouin will definitely bring you to a shop tucked in the form of a tent somewhere under a picturesque mountain or in a gorge - there they will unobtrusively offer you simple Bedouin souvenirs, and will also offer you tea brewed in an army teapot from the time of the colonization of Egypt by the British.

An hour's trip - and a lot of beautiful impressions and photographs.
Well, now either to Aqaba or Petra

5 /5 (16 )

Quite spontaneously, we managed to implement two independent trips at once - first to celebrate the New Year in Ukraine, and immediately after that we arranged a difficult search for warm sun in the Middle East. I have already started telling you about Ukraine, and in the near future, of course, I will continue. And today is the time to show you something interesting from the second part of our New Year’s journey. And my first story is about the Jordanian desert of Wadi Rum, one of the most beautiful places on earth and, at the same time, one of the brightest impressions from our Middle Eastern trip. This is one of my best photo reports. Enjoy!

The Wadi Rum desert is considered one of the most beautiful in the world. It is not surprising that such a title attracts Hollywood directors - some scenes of “Star Wars”, “Transformers” and “Prometheus” were filmed here, so a creeping feeling of déjà vu while walking through the local canyons and plains is guaranteed. This love of cinematic geniuses is no coincidence - the incredible colors of the desert along with its unusual geological formations are truly amazing!

This place is purely touristic, which, surprisingly, does not detract from its value. At the entrance to the desert there is a tourist center, around which a crowd of enterprising Bedouins always hangs out, vying with each other to offer themselves as guides. Since there is nothing to do here without a guide with a good jeep, and I didn’t want to rely on luck, I contacted Mehedi from Russia, a local Bedouin who organizes desert safari and has an amazing number of good reviews on various tourist resources.

Mehedi warned me in advance not to listen to the Bedouins near the tourist center under any circumstances - they would use any tricks to lure me into their network. Indeed, as soon as I got out of the car and headed to the ticket office to pay for our stay in the desert, I was surrounded by a crowd of Arabs who began vying with each other to offer me their services. One of them even said that he was Mehedi, saying that he had been waiting for me here since early morning. Having fought off the annoying would-be entrepreneurs, we moved on to the place of our meeting with Mehedi.

He himself could not meet us; his brother, Auvdekh, acted as a guide (oh, I hope I wrote his name correctly in Russian). At first, when we saw the car in which we were to go into the desert, we were horrified. The twenty-six-year-old Toyota, at first glance, had great difficulty falling under the definition of “car.” It turned out that this miracle drives, and even quite well. So what if the windshield is decorated with a web of cracks, because of which you can’t see anything, and there’s no trace of the side glass? Well, one more detail - the wipers, for example, don’t work. The downshift works with great reluctance. There are no brakes... But who will you scare with this? Let's hit the road!

The weather was as bad as it gets in these parts. I was also lucky that it didn’t fall asleep with snow.

Heavy gray clouds rushed directly above our heads at breakneck speed, sometimes opening small gaps that were instantly filled with bright sunlight.

At these moments the desert was transformed, filled with bright colors and contrasting shadows.

All around us there were beautiful landscapes stretching beyond the horizon, and if it weren’t for the thick clouds that constantly hid the sunlight from us, both of my memory cards would have been filled with photographs at the very beginning of the safari.

These places are inextricably linked with Lawrence of Arabia, a British officer who played an important role in the Arab revolt in 1916-1920.

But we came here not for history, but for natural beauty, and we will enjoy it.

Khazali Canyon. In the old days, this place was used by the Bedouins for recreation. In the summer months, the air in the desert easily heats up to fifty degrees Celsius, and the only place where you can hide from the killing heat is the narrow canyons, which retain a pleasant coolness.

We have never been able to understand the happiness of the Bedouins. The air temperature did not want to rise above five degrees Celsius, so both in the desert and in the gorge it was cold and dank.

The canyon is certainly beautiful.

Not far from the entrance you can find ancient petroglyphs. Scientists claim that they are several thousand years old, although, in truth, all this is more like an initiative of local inhabitants, designed for gullible tourists.

Periodically, the sky became completely overcast and thousands of falling drops of water began to drum on the loose sand. The surrounding landscapes were again transformed beyond recognition. In addition to the rain, gusts of cold wind flew from behind the mountains, painfully whipping us in the face with a mixture of water and sand.

Most of the desert is rocky, but in some places you can find real sand dunes. The right photo shows petroglyphs from the Nabatean period located near the dunes.

Ruins of an old Nabataean house. It is believed that the building was used by Lawrence of Arabia as an ammunition depot.

The house offers another beautiful view of the desert.

Periodically there are Bedouin tents. Most of them work with tourists.

In some places, entire towns of tents have been set up where visitors can spend the night.

As I wrote above, the Wadi Rum desert is famous for its natural formations - canyons and arches.

Another arch. Those who are especially crazy can climb to its top.

Self-portrait. The shadow at the top of the arch is me.

The views from the top are gorgeous.

By the end of the day the weather began to improve. We even had hope that the coming day, which we were going to spend in Petra, would delight us with the warm Jordanian sun. We did not yet suspect that literally in a few hours we would be making our way through a mountain pass in ten-centimeter snow, and our only companion for an hour would be a merciless snowstorm. But all this was ahead, and for now we rejoiced at the unexpected rays of sunshine gently enveloping the sandy roads of the desert.

Of course, Wadi Rum looks most beautiful in the sun. Especially when time gradually begins to creep towards sunset.

Just look at how bright the colors are.

At the beginning of the day, I was frankly worried that the weather was letting us down. Indeed, to get caught in the rain in the desert, you need to have some kind of paranormal luck. By evening, I realized that on the contrary, we were lucky - we were among the chosen few who managed to see Wadi Rum in rain or shine.

The range of colors varies depending on the area from bright yellow to dark burgundy.

See for yourself how beautiful it is!

When we were completely frozen, Auvdekh took out from somewhere in the bins a huge piece of polyethylene, which was supposed to replace the missing window. By the way, it turned out rather clumsily - the polyethylene constantly fell off, so Auvdekh had no choice but to constantly hold it with one hand. Service!

Chick. And how natural it is!

This photo, in my opinion, turned out well - almost like a finished poster for an adventure film!

Cold but happy, we headed back to the tourist center. Along the way, we stopped at one of the Bedouin camps, where Auvdeh wanted to visit his Bedouin friends, and we were accidentally shown an unattainable level of local hospitality - when I approached the flaring fire, the Bedouins sincerely apologized that they did not have time to light it before our arrival and with me there won't be a chance to warm up for a couple of minutes...

By the way, fires were the only thing that allowed us to stay warm during our walk. And then, of course, hot tea, to which the Bedouins add a set of herbs unknown to me. It turns out quite cloying, but damn, delicious!

In general, despite the terrible weather, we liked everything. The following photograph conveys the fullness of emotions. On the left is Annuir, on the right is Auvdeh. Well, as Mehedi later told me: “Insha Allah, one day in the future you may be able to come here again.” Let's hope!

In this article I will share reviews and photos of our independent trip to the Wadi Rum desert in southern Jordan. At the end of the publication, I will talk about prices, how to get there and other organizational aspects of traveling through the Martian desert.

Wadi Rum desert and many photos

The rocky desert of Wadi Rum (also known as the Valley of the Moon, Wadi Rum, Wadi Rum) is located in the south of Jordan and is one of the most picturesque places in the country, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This attraction is famous not only for its red-orange Martian landscapes, but also for the historical events of the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918. The Briton Thomas Edward Lawrence stayed here for some time, helping the rebel Arabs fight against the Turks. By the way, Lawrence successfully applied a completely new tactic of warfare - guerrilla warfare, which was most suitable for the Bedouin mentality. A film about this uprising called “Lawrence of Arabia” was shot here in 1962, which subsequently received seven Oscars. Later, the films “Transformer,” “Red Planet,” “Last Days on Mars,” and “The Martian” were filmed in the desert.

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the first attraction of the Wadi Rum desert, which can be seen even before entering the park. Usually tourists do not count 7 pillars. Five can be clearly distinguished. But seven... Well, oh well. By the way, the famous book by Lawrence of Arabia is called “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.” Whether the rock was named after this book, or whether the author considered the name of the rock suitable for his creation, I don’t know. But we are not historians, after all.

At the tourist office we were recruited for a tour by one of the so-called guides. After jumping into a four-wheel drive vehicle with a driver (a local Bedouin), we headed off on a jeep safari through one of Jordan's most famous landmarks - the Wadi Rum desert.

Our first stop is Lawrence of Arabia Spring. We didn't go too high.

Duneboarding

The second point of inspection was the red dune. Our guide took a snowboard out of the trunk and led us to the sandy peak.

Rock dune

Climbing uphill on fine sand is not as easy as it might seem

Duneboarding

Our guide brags to his friends about his discovery - he found a phone in the sand. Probably one of the tourists got lost while duneboarding.

Meanwhile, I stopped to take a few photos of the incredibly beautiful mountain.

Petroglyphs in Khazali Canyon

Very close to the dune is the Khazali Canyon. Immediately at the entrance to it, on the walls you can easily find Nabatean rock paintings - petroglyphs. The antiquity of their origin, however, raises some doubts.

And the weather was getting cloudier...

Small Bridge

The next stop in the Wadi Rum desert was the small bridge, or small arch. There were already more tourists here.

Small Bridge

Great arch

The large arch called Um Frouth Rock Bridge is considered the most fashionable landmark of the Wadi Rum desert. But it is located far from other places visited before, and accordingly, the price of the tour is higher, and therefore not all tourists come here. In the photo they usually play with shadow and sun. Our game didn't work out - the sky was overcast.

Other attractions of the Wadi Rum desert

Not far from the village of Ram is the Nabataean Temple. In the Wadi Rum desert there are also such exhibits as the mushroom stone, mushroom rock, the large bridge on Mount Burrah, Lawrence House, Burrah Canyon and others.

Sunset in the Jordanian desert

After the big arch we headed to watch the sunset. On the way to a specially designated point, we stopped to take pictures in a beautiful place.

There is a small hole in the stone. There is a local tradition here - one by one throwing pebbles at it. The one who gets into the hole wins.

One of the sunset viewing points in the Wadi Rum desert is a spiral rock next to the chicken stone.

We watched the sunset on this shell rock

That's how it all began.

He was waiting...

And he waited!

In pitch darkness we drove back to the village of Ram.

Wadi Rum desert on the map of Jordan

I marked the main attractions of the Wadi Rum desert on the map of Jordan:

Explanation of marks on the map:

• Red ones are basic objects.
• Purple - notable desert objects.
• The green ones are the approximate traditional places to meet the sunset.
• Yellow - white desert.
• Orange - turn off highway No. 15.

When you click on a marker, its GPS coordinates will be displayed.

Wadi Rum prices. How much does a desert trip in Jordan cost?

Entrance stands in the desert 5 JOD (7$) . If available, you do not need to pay this amount. Separately directly to the guide are paid various kinds of excursions, accommodation and meals in the Wadi Rum desert.

Let's go make a mark at Jordan Pass

By your car or taxi to the desert park area No entry. You need to leave the car in the parking lot of the tourism center or in the village of Ram, and then go sightseeing in one of the following ways.

By jeep with driver (guide)

Rates depend on the number of attractions included (and time, respectively), as well as the ability to bargain. Near the tourist information center there is a poster with basic prices for jeep safari.

As we were told, these are prices per person. But, most likely, these are the prices for the car, and, to put it mildly, we were fooled. I made these conclusions while still in Jordan in the city of mosaics Madaba, where we met a wonderful person - guide Fadi (Fadi A. Karadshih, contacts: [email protected] ), an excellent speaker of Russian, who told us that he could organize a tour of Wadi Rum with overnight stay and meals behind 80-90 JOD on two. When I was preparing this article, I found several personal websites of Bedouins who organized excursions in the desert. Here are their average prices for a jeep tour in the Wadi Rum desert for two:

• 2 hours(Lawrence spring, red dune, Khazali canyon with petroglyphs) – 30 JOD for one, 30-50 JOD for two.
• 4 hours(Lawrence spring, red dune, Khazali canyon with petroglyphs, small arch) – 50-65 JOD for one, 70-80 JOD for two.
• 5 o'clock(Lawrence spring, red dune, Khazali canyon with petroglyphs, small arch, Um Frouth Rock bridge) – 55-70 JOD for one, 60-80 JOD for two.
• 7-8 hours(all main attractions) – 65-80 JOD for one, 80-90 JOD for two.

We paid for two, taking into account the bargaining 90 JOD (127$) for a tour combination average between 4 and 5 hours + sunset in the desert. We arrived around 2:30 p.m. and left at 6:30 p.m.

On camels

This exotic way of exploring the desert is not suitable for everyone: the distances are long, and you can’t really escape the sun. There are one, two, three and four day camel tours of the Wadi Rum desert. Classic (6-7 hours) – 60 JOD for one, 80 JOD for two.

On foot

Not the most pleasant pleasure, in my opinion, given the scorching sun during the day and the coolness at night. To give you an idea, the distances between the attractions and the village of Ram are 3 – 20 km. To fully explore the desert you will need to walk at least 60 km on sand. From the tourist center to the village of Ram is another 8 km. However, some tent hitchhikers sometimes get carried away with this process, exploring Wadi Rum on foot for several days, spending the night in their tents. You can also hire a guide for trekking.

Where to book a tour

✔ One of the options is directly on Bedouin websites.Example: wadirumcamelcamp.com, wildwadirum.com, bedouinwhispers.com, wadirumbedouintraditions.com, wadirumdiscovery.com.

✔ If you arrived on your own and did not agree with anyone in advance, then on site It won’t be difficult to find someone willing to take you for a ride through the desert. As soon as you approach the tourist center, the first thing they will do is ask you if you have made an appointment with anyone about an excursion. If the answer is negative, they will give you a guide. If it’s positive, they’ll most likely give you a false guide. That is, if you agreed in advance with Aodeh / Mohammed / Mehedi or someone else about an excursion, and upon arrival a Bedouin comes up to you and claims that he is the brother / son / matchmaker of your guide, then he is 90% lying to get clients for yourself.

✔ Another way to visit the Wadi Rum desert is to order at the agency ready-made excursion with departure from Aqaba / Amman, etc. This option simplifies the hassle, since there is no need to look for transport to the village of Ram, there is no need to bargain and resolve other organizational issues.

✔ Can be booked individual excursion on special excursion sites, having read the reviews in advance. Below are examples of individual excursions to Wadi Rum from Aqaba with good reviews ( price indicated not per person, but for the entire excursion up to 4 people.):

You can stay overnight in Wadi Rum. The overnight stay is a bed in a Bedouin tent in the middle of the desert.

One of the camp options

How to rent a tent tent in Wadi Rum:

• Directly contact the guides (contacts can be found on the Bedouin websites that were given earlier).
• Agree on the spot.
• Book on Booking (booking.com/wadi-rum).

As a rule, overnight accommodation includes dinners/breakfasts. When ordering you need to pay attention to this.

It is worth considering in advance the method of delivery to the place of overnight stay.

Prices for a two-person tent start from 17$ , although there are also luxury tents for 180$ . They gave us some hefty sum on the spot, we didn’t stay overnight in the desert and went to Wadi Musa (Petra).

How to get to Wadi Rum

Distance to Wadi Rum desert:

• From Aqaba – 65 km.
• From Wadi Musa (Petra) – 100 km.
• From Amman - about 300 km.
• From Madaba – about 300 km.
• From the Dead Sea - about 300 km.

There is no public transport in Wadi Rum, which makes the journey to this site difficult. However, there are at least five ways to get to the desert on your own:

• Taxi. From Aqaba it will cost from 30-40 JOD. Very often, tourists rent a taxi for two trips in one day - Petra and the Wadi Rum desert. In principle, if you go to Petra in the morning and don’t walk around there much, then by lunchtime you can arrive in Wadi Rum and take a tour similar to ours.
• Order transfer from the Bedouins directly.
• Take in and go on your own, as we did.
• Ride on public transport, then disembark on highway No. 15 at the turn to Wadi Rum and cover 21 km hitchhiking.
• Fully to hitchhike.

Like the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan:

• Through the northern passage (Nahar Yarden / Sheikh Hussein). You can obtain a visa upon arrival in Jordan at the border. Continue through Amman.
• Through the southern passage (Yitzhak Rabin / Arava). Visa-free entry provided you stay in Jordan for more than 2 nights. Then take a taxi from the border or transit through Aqaba.
• From the West Bank (crossing Allenby Bridge/King Hussein Bridge). A pre-obtained visa is required. Continue through Amman.

is a desert in the very heart of Jordan, where white and red sands and steep cliffs that go into the sky are amazingly combined. In the desert you can spend several days filled with various adventures, surrounded by pristine nature. Here you can climb the highest mountain in Jordan, slide down a huge sand dune on a board, see mesmerizing sunsets, and at night - a sky strewn with myriads of stars!

The climate here is quite dry, with large temperature changes during the day. In winter, temperatures range from 4 degrees Celsius at night to 25°C during the day, in summer - from 19°C at night to 35°C during the day. The best time to visit is spring, when the flowers bloom here.

If you only have one day, you can travel around all the most beautiful places by jeep.

Climbing onto a rock near the village of Wadi Rum, it is easy to find a water source. From here you have a very beautiful view of the desert.

Khazali Canyon

A stone bridge

Red sand dune

Ruins of the House of Lawrence of Arabia

And some places resemble lunar and Martian landscapes. It is not for nothing that Wadi Rum is also called the Valley of the Moon.

But to immerse yourself in the atmosphere and energy of this place, it is best to travel through the desert on foot. The guide does not accompany tourists along the entire route, but only periodically meets his sponsors in a jeep, shows the direction, talks about the most interesting places on the route, and for lunch makes a fire on which to prepare very tasty Bedouin tea. But he's not around most of the way.

The first thing you notice when you are in the desert is the deafening silence. Like in a cave. Absolutely silent breeze. A beetle crawls about its business completely silently, or a lizard slinks by. You are overcome by a feeling of harmony with nature, calm and tranquility. Here you suddenly understand what a sound-filled world we live in. We are almost never left in silence. All the time something sounds next to us: the noise of a car on the street, a refrigerator, a computer or trees outside the window...

Traveling on a camel immerses you in a completely different mood and a different reality. Monotonous, swaying movements... The guide, on his camel, sings a mournful Bedouin song... The path lies through the places where, about 2000 years ago, trade routes ran from settlements on the site of modern Saudi Arabia to Petra. There are drawings on the rocks that have been preserved from that time.

Your imagination takes you thousands of years ago, when in these places, past these same rocks, completely different people rode camels. And you understand that in 2000 years, when modern civilization has already become history, here in the desert, in all likelihood, little will change, and completely different people will look at the inscriptions on the rock made in Russian: “Kisa and Osya were here.” "

There are at least three options for spending the night in the desert. Standard: in a Bedouin camp, in sheep wool tents. Beds, white sheets, everything is clean. There is a toilet and a shower, although it is cold. Includes dinner and breakfast buffet.

For thrill-seekers, there is the option of spending the night in a semi-cave in the open air. Thick mattresses and warm blankets are delivered by jeep (even in winter it will not be cold). Dinner will be prepared for you at the fire. There is a stunningly beautiful sky over the desert at night! The view is limited by the rocks and you can see the stars moving quite quickly across the sky. Different constellations are visible at different times of the night.

The third option for an overnight stay for exotic lovers: you can stay with a local family, in a Bedouin house, in the village of Wadi Rum. Jordanians are very hospitable people: if you're lucky, you'll get to attend a Bedouin wedding or someone's birthday! But be prepared to be awakened at 5am by calls to prayer coming from the local mosque.

How to get to Wadi Rum

Buses run from Aqaba and Petra every morning to the village of Wadi Rum. Departure times may vary from day to day and must be confirmed with your hotel or through your guide. Bus fare is 5-7JD. A taxi from the Eilat-Aqaba border or from Aqaba will cost approximately 38 JD. A taxi from Petra will cost 50JD ($1 USA - 0.7 Jordanian dinars JD)

What to take with you:

• sleeping bag;
• flashlight;
• germicidal wet wipes;
• headdress;
• sunscreen.

The average cost of hiking tours with a local guide is from 40 to 60 JD per day per person, including overnight stay, breakfast and dinner.

Companies organizing desert tours:

Discussion

What struck me in Wadi Rum was the close proximity of different colored sand. You can stand on a pink hillock, on one side there will be gray sand, and a little further on there will be orange sand, and a little further away there will be bluish sand. Very beautiful. Local traders collect this sand and make compositions in a bottle from it. They say there are more than 100 shades.

04/16/2014 13:09:47, Clone

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