They are sculptures, in fact – not created by human hands but artfully modelled by nature. I have listed them in a map in my ebook SAUDI ARABIA AL ULA.
One of them is the Falcon Rock, a smaller solitary rock. wind, sun and temperature differences, is indeed resembling the head of a falcon. Its (dark) eye sockets and sharp curved (upper) beak and even the nostrils exactly mimic the bird of prey in real life.
Once you pass the Maserat Camp, a somewhat older camping settlement, until you reach a few smaller buildings at the entrance to a narrow rocky gorge, which in turn leads to a café in the middle of a high group of rocks. At the entrance to the gorge there is a single citrus tree that bears fruit in autumn, which is apparently not harvested and can be eaten together with the peel. The small ravine, which is about 230 metres (750 ft) long, is only a few metres wide at most and is formed by towering, almost vertical cliffs.
The end of the gorge opens up into an open space framed on all sides by equally steep cliffs and rock cones. This scenic location has been transformed into the aforementioned open air café, which is effectively illuminated in the late afternoon.
North to the Harrat Uwayrid, there is small spring – a quite rare mark in a barren environment. Once you are on the way to it, you will drive through a relatively wide valley covered with lava rock. The area radiates tranquillity, it is barren, not suitable for human settlement – a welcome change from the now bustling Al Ula. Only a few small tufts of grasses and shrubs struggling to survive grow from the basalt-covered ground. Smaller rock formations look like extinct volcanic cones, but in fact are not. Rather, they are smaller cone-shaped sandstone hills onto which magma was hurled from neighbouring active volcanoes ages ago.
