It is a landscape straight out of a picture book. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to find pictorial words to answer this simple initial question, as there are thousands of impressions of scenes, feelings and sensory perceptions that make a trip there an unforgettable and grateful (in the literal sense) memory. Yes, this desert is indescribable... it is indescribably beautiful. And no, it is not a beauté, a beauty, a Venus. It is too harsh, too rough, too barren, too rocky for that. And yet it is not empty, not dead, not desolate, not lifeless, not lonely – no, it is alive… and how!
It is a breathtaking miracle of nature with its partly reddish sand and sandstone formations, with its rocks that appear to have been randomly scattered there, with its striking appearance, with its narrow crevices and arched rocks, with its labyrinthine rocks.
This blog does not provide enough space for describing all important details. So, if you would like to read more about its location, its mountains, rock formations, its sand, its towns and settlements, its archaeological inscriptions, its fauna and flora, I may recommend my ebook ‘SAUDI ARABIA TABUK‘. There you will also find details about
- the Ship Rock (Jabal Al Safinah), a solitary rock that is made of sandstone, which has been eroded into the shape of a ship running aground on sand,
- the Arch Rock, a small, elongated rock that has a flat front with an arch-shaped breakout formed by wind and weather,
- the Split Rock, with windblown sand caught in the crevice and vertical furrows on the eastern wall, as if they had been scraped out of the sandstone with a giant spoon
- and more examples.
