Al-Badʿ is a town in

Tabuk Region Tabuk ( ar, مِنْطَقَة تَبُوْك '), also spelled ''Tabouk'', is a region of Saudi Arabia, located along the north-west coast of the country, facing Egypt across the Red Sea. It has an area of 146,072 km2 and a population of 91 ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

. It is west of

Tabuk, Saudi Arabia Tabuk ( ar, تَبُوْك '), also spelled ''Tabouk'', is the capital city of the Tabuk Region in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It has a population of 667,000 (as of 2021). It is close to the Jordanian–Saudi Arabia border, and houses the larges ...

, between Tabuk and the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

Coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

. Located at 28° 41' N and 35° 18' E, it lies on the border of the Hejaz, and was in antiquity in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

ern

Midian Midian (; he, מִדְיָן ''Mīḏyān'' ; ar, مَدْيَن, Madyan; grc-gre, Μαδιάμ, ''Madiam'') is a geographical place mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was in the "northwest A ...

. Al-Bad is located in the valley of the Wadi Aful in a highland area (218 m

ASL American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

). It is near the town of Tayyib Al-Ism and approx. 25 km east of the eastern coast of the

Gulf of Aqaba The Gulf of Aqaba ( ar, خَلِيجُ ٱلْعَقَبَةِ, Khalīj al-ʿAqabah) or Gulf of Eilat ( he, מפרץ אילת, Mifrátz Eilát) is a large gulf at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabi ...

, part of the

where there are pristine

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

s. In 1995, 2 people at Al-Bad' died during the Gulf of Aqaba earthquake.

Hijaz Mountains

To the east of the town is the Sarwat ranges, the northern end of the

Hijaz Mountains The Hijaz Mountains ( ar, جِبَال ٱلْحِجَاز, Jibāl al-Ḥijāz ()) or "Hejaz Range" is a mountain range located in the Hejazi region of western Saudi Arabia. The range runs north and south along the eastern coast of the Red Sea, ...

. This area is known for

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s carved into the arid

volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcan ...

. Northeast of the town is the peak

Jabal al-Lawz Jabal al-Lawz ( ar, جَبَل ٱللَّوْز), also known as Gebel el-Lawz, is a mountain located in northwest Saudi Arabia, near the Jordanian border, above the Gulf of Aqaba at above sea level. The name means 'mountain of almonds'.Hoffmeie ...

, Jabal Lawz
( ar, جبل اللوز) which at 8400 feet is one of the highest peaks in

. The mountain Jabal Maqla' is to the south of Jabal al Lawz. This 7600 foot high

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

peak is, like Jabal Lawz, crowned with black

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

. Much of this volcanic region is granite and vegetation is sparse grassland with the occasional tree.

Religious significance

The town of Al-Bad' is within the traditional Hejaz region of

, and the population are Muslim. Some two kilometers south of the town of al-Bad' are caves called by the local people "Magha'ir Shu'ayb" (the Caves of

Jethro Jethro is a male given name meaning "overflow". It is derived from the Hebrew word ''Yithrô''. People named Jethro * Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns (1920–1989), mandolin player in satirical country music duo Homer and Jethro * Jethro Franklin ...

). Modern archaeologists hold that the caves are 1st century AD

Nabatean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern L ...

tombs. Local tradition also holds that "Bir al Saidni" located in the nearby coastal town of

Makna MAKNA (Majlis Kanser Nasional) or National Cancer Council Malaysia is a is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to reducing the pain, suffering and morbidity that cancer patients often experience. The organization provides curative care, ...

, is the very

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. T ...

from which Moses rolled away the stone to draw water for the flocks of Jethro's daughters. The town of Makna (or Magna) is on the Red Sea coast to the southwest of al-Bad'. A

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community was known here from at least the 9th century AD. The nearby town of Tayyib Al-Ism is important to some Mormons as they believe it is referenced in the

book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude ...

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exp ...

s writers,

Bob Cornuke Bob Cornuke (born 1951) is an American writer and president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute (BASE), which is operated from his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He describes himself as a Biblical archaeologist, but has no ...

Ron Wyatt Ronald Eldon Wyatt (June 2, 1933 – August 4, 1999) was an American nurse anesthetist noted for advocating the Durupınar site in Turkey as the location of Noah's Ark's landing place, along with almost 100 other alleged biblically-related disc ...

and Lennart Möller, hold that

, is the real

biblical Mount Sinai Mount Sinai (, ''Har Sīnay'') is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God, according to the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired at Mo ...

References

{{reflist, 30em Populated coastal places in Saudi Arabia Populated places in Tabuk Province Underwater diving sites in Saudi Arabia Red Sea