Wadi Rum ( ''Wādī Ramm'', also ''Wādī al-Ramm''), known also as the Valley of the Moon ( ''Wādī al-Qamar''), is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, near the border with

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and about to the east of the city of

Aqaba Aqaba ( , ; , ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative center of the Aqaba Governorate. The city had a population of 148, ...

. With an area of it is the largest

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

(river valley) in Jordan. Several prehistoric civilizations left

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, rock inscriptions and ruins in Wadi Rum. Today it is a tourist attraction, offering guided tours, hiking and rock climbing. The Wadi Rum Protected Area has been a

UNESCO World Heritage site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

since 2011.

Toponym

Wadi Rum or Wadi Ramm is believed to get its name from the early name of

Iram of the Pillars Iram of the Pillars (; an alternative translation is ''Iram of the tentpoles''), also called "Irum", "Irem", "Erum", or the "City of the pillars", is a lost city mentioned in the Quran. Iram in the Quran The Quran mentions Iram in connection wi ...

(also called Irum ()), a

lost city In the popular imagination, a lost city is a real, once-prosperous and well-populated area of human habitation that fell into terminal decline and whose location was later forgotten. Lost City, The Lost City, or Lost Cities may also refer to: Pl ...

mentioned in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

Geography

The area is centered on the main valley of Wadi Rum. The highest elevation in Jordan is

Jabal Umm ad Dami Jabal Umm ad Dami, in historic Wadi Rum, is the highest mountain in Jordan. Its claimed elevation of 1,854 metres Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

from Rum. On a clear day, it is possible to see the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

and the Saudi border from the top.

Jabal Ram Jabal Ram is a mountain in Jordan. Most authorities give its elevation as above sea level. It was once thought to be the highest point in Jordan, but SRTM The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is an international research effort that o ...

or Jebel Rum ( above sea level) is the second highest peak in Jordan and the highest peak in the central Rum, rising directly above Rum valley, opposite Jebel um Ishrin, which is possibly one meter lower. Khaz'ali Canyon in Wadi Rum is the site of

petroglyphs 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 ...

etched into the cave walls depicting humans and antelopes dating back to the

Thamud The Thamud () were an ancient tribe or tribal confederation in pre-Islamic Arabia that occupied the northwestern Arabian Peninsula. They are attested in contemporaneous Mesopotamian and Classical inscriptions, as well as Arabic ones from the e ...

ic times. The village of Wadi Rum itself consists of several hundred

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

inhabitants with their goat-hair tents and concrete houses and also their four-wheel vehicles, one school for boys and one for girls, a few shops, and the headquarters of the Desert Patrol.

Climate

Wadi Rum experiences a

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: BWh/BWk). Rainfall is scarce, often occurring as

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash f ...

s, and results almost exclusively from

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

s. These thunderstorms are caused when cold upper air pools passing through the

Eastern Mediterranean The Eastern Mediterranean is a loosely delimited region comprising the easternmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, and well as the adjoining land—often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It includes the southern half of Turkey ...

interact with the Red Sea thermal low, combined with the presence of subtropical moisture in the mid and high levels of the atmosphere.

Geology

Wadi Rum is located within the Sandstone Mountain and Valley Region of southern Jordan the area is characterized by tall, near vertical mountains of iron-rich, erosion resistant, Umm Ishrin

Sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, separated by flat-bottom valleys of

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

sediments, aeolian sands, and salt pans. The Umm Ishrin is the thickest formation in the Lower Palaeozoic-

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cret ...

Nubian Sandstone, underlying the Disi and Umm Sahn sandstone formations, and overlying the Salib Arkosic Formation. The Salib in turn overlies the eroded Aqaba Complex of plutonic

granitoid A granitoid is a broad term referring to a diverse group of coarse-grained igneous rocks that are widely distributed across the globe, covering a significant portion of the Earth's exposed surface and constituting a large part of the continental ...

s. An

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

forms along this lithologic contact, with springs forming on the eastern mountain slopes.

Alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

s compose most of the alluvial sediments. Aeolian systems include tafoni, natural bridges, and

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s. Sand dunes include barkhans, climbing dunes consisting of sand ramps that reach the tops of hills, and echo dunes consisting of sands that have crawled over a hill to be deposited on the lee side.

History

Various human cultures have inhabited Wadi Rum since prehistoric times, with many cultures–including the

Nabataeans The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ) were an ancient Arabs, Arab people who inhabited northern Arabian Peninsula, Arabia and the southern Levant. Their settlements—most prominently the assumed capital city o ...

–leaving their mark in the form of

s, inscriptions, and temple ruins. Currently, the majority is made up by the Zalabieh Bedouins who arrived to the region around 1980. The word "Bedouin" comes from the Arabic word for desert, pronounced ''badiya'' in the Arabic language. The root of this word is ''bad’a'', which translates to "clear" and "obvious" in Arabic. One central characteristic for Bedouin tribes is the sense of belonging that tribe members feel. When they first arrived, the Zalabieh bedouins lived in tents. Their village held about 700-800 people. 80% of those people were either retired from the army or the police. The camel is the favorite animal of the Zalabieh bedouins. It is a symbol for male pride. Camel racing is an important sport for the Bedouins. These races allow Bedouins to engage in male competition, and establish manhood and power within the community. Wadi Rum was documented by British officer T. E. Lawrence, who passed through several times during the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ), also known as the Great Arab Revolt ( ), was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Co ...

of 1917–18. In the 1980s one of the rock formations in Wadi Rum, originally known as "Jabal al-Mazmar" (''The Mountain of (the) Plague''), was named "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom," after Lawrence's book penned in the aftermath of the war, though the 'Seven Pillars' referred to in the book have no connection with Rum. Lawrence described his entrance into the Valley of Rumm: "The hills on the right grew taller and sharper, a fair counterpart of the other side which straightened itself to one massive rampart of redness. They drew together until only two miles divided them: and then, towering gradually till their parallel parapets must have been a thousand feet above us, ran forward in an avenue for miles. The crags were capped in nests of domes, less hotly red than the body of the hill; rather grey and shallow. They gave the finishing semblance of Byzantine architecture to this irresistible place: this processional way greater than imagination." Lawrence also described his encounter with the spring, Ain Shalaaleh, "On the rock-bulge above were clear-cut Nabathaean inscriptions, and a sunk panel incised with a monogram or symbol. Around and about were Arab scratches, including tribe-marks, some of which were witnesses of forgotten migrations: but my attention was only for the splashing of water in a crevice under the shadow of the overhanging rock. I looked in to see the spout, a little thinner than my wrist, jetting out firmly from a fissure in the roof, and falling with that clean sound into a shallow, frothing pool, behind the step which served as an entrance. Thick ferns and grasses of the finest green made it a paradise just five feet square." The discovery of the Nabataean Temple (located walking distance from the Rest House) in 1933 briefly returned the spotlight to the desert. A French team of archaeologists completed the excavations in 1997.

Activities

Tourism

Desert scenes of Wadi Rum in '' Lawrence of Arabia'' from 1962 kick-started Jordan's tourism industry. Wadi Rum is one of Jordan's most popular tourist sites, attracting 162,000 tourists in 2017. Wadi Rum is home to the Zalabieh tribe, who developed eco-adventure tourism and services throughout the protected area. Using local guides and services brings many benefits to the protected area. In particular, it enables people to continue earning a living from the land and helps to ensure that the protected area remains protected. Bedouins in Wadi Rum allow tourists to stay overnight in their traditional camps, and provide activities, meals and transport throughout the desert. They also run restaurants and small shops in the villages that provide meals and basic supplies for visitors. Popular activities in Wadi Rum include 4x4 tours, camel rides, hiking, and camping. Dima and Lama Hattab coordinate an annual

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

in the region called Jabal Ishrin.

Rock climbing

Local

have climbed in the

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

mountains of Wadi Rum for many generations. Many of their 'Bedouin Roads' have been rediscovered and documented by modern climbers. Several are included in the

climbing guidebook Climbing guidebooks are used by mountaineers, alpinists, ice climbers, and rock climbers to locate, grade, and navigate climbing routes on mountains, climbing crags, or bouldering areas. Modern route guidebooks include detailed information o ...

by Tony Howard, and online by Liên and Gilles Rappeneau. In 1949, Sheikh Hamdan took surveyors to the summit of Jabal Ram. The first recorded European ascent of Jabal Ram took place in November 1952, by Charmian Longstaff and Sylvia Branford, guided by Sheik Hamdan. The first recorded rock climbs started in 1984, with the first of many visits by English climbers Howard, Baker, Taylor and Shaw. This group repeated many of the Bedouin routes, accompanied by locals and independently, including, in 1984, Hammad's Route on Jebel Rum, and, in 1985, Sheikh Kraim's Hunter's Slabs and Rijm Assaf on Jebel Rum. Many new routes were climbed in the 1980s, by this team, French guide Wilfried Colonna, by the Swiss Remy brothers, and by Haupolter and Precht. The first dedicated climbing guide book, ''Treks and Climb in Wadi Rum'', by Tony Howard, was first published in 1987. Some of the many Bedouin routes have been documented online by Lien and Gilles Rappeneau. A new routes book for climbers is held at the Wadi Rum Guest House. The route Guerre Sainte was climbed in 2000 by Batoux, Petit and friends. This was the first route in Wadi Rum to be entirely equipped using bolt protection. The route, on the East Face of Jebel Nassarani North, is long, and graded F7b or F7aA0.

Filming location

The area has been used as a background setting in a number of films. Filmmakers are particularly drawn to it for science fiction films set on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. The Location Managers Guild recognized the Jordanian Royal Film Commission with its LMGI Award for Outstanding Film Commission in 2017 for its work on ''

Rogue One ''Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' is a 2016 American epic space opera film directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. Produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the first '' ...

'', which was filmed at Wadi Rum. The RFC was previously nominated for its work with '' The Martian''. * '' Lawrence of Arabia'' –

David Lean Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor, widely considered one of the most important figures of Cinema of the United Kingdom, British cinema. He directed the large-scale epi ...

filmed much of this

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

film on location in Wadi Rum. * ''

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...

'' – scenes for the Alien Planet * '' The Last Days on Mars'' – filmed for exterior shots representing the surface of the titular planet for this

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

film. * '' The Martian'' – filming for the

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

film began in March 2015, for shots that stood in for the surface of Mars. * '' Theeb'' – Filmed mostly in Wadi Rum, as well as Wadi Araba. * '' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'', used for scenes set on Jedha. * ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

'', 2019 live action remake of the 1992 Disney animated film of the same name. * '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'', used for the desert planet Pasaana. * ''

Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

'' (2021), used as a location for the desert planet

Arrakis Arrakis ()—informally known as Dune and later called Rakis—is a fictional desert planet featured in the ''Dune'' series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's ''Dune'', is considered one of the greatest sc ...

Timothée Chalamet Timothée Hal Chalamet ( ; born December 27, 1995) is an American and French actor. List of awards and nominations received by Timothée Chalamet, His accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to ...

called Wadi Rum 'awe-inspiring'. * '' Dune: Part Two'', used as a filming location. * '' Aadujeevitham'' – The desert scenes of the 2024

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both the mainstream film industry ...

were mostly shot on locations in Wadi Rum. * ''

Moon Knight Moon Knight is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in ''Werewolf by Night'' #32 (August 1975). The son of a rabbi, Marc S ...

(2022)'', used for the scenes outside

Ammit Ammit (; , "Devourer of the Dead"; also rendered Ammut or Ahemait) was an ancient Egyptian goddess with the forequarters of a lion, the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and the head of a crocodile—the three largest "man-eating" animals known ...

's tomb. * ''

The Amazing Race 34 ''The Amazing Race 34'' is the thirty-fourth season of the American reality competition show ''The Amazing Race (American TV series), The Amazing Race''. Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured twelve teams of two, each with a pre-existing relations ...

'' * '' John Wick: Chapter 4'' (2023), used for a desert scene while John Wick is on the move. * '' Special Forces: World's Toughest Test'' season 1

Gallery

File:GabelRum01 ST 07.JPG, View from the top of Jabal Ram File:Seven Pillars 2008 e5.jpg, The "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" rock formation File:WadiRumPetroglyphs.jpg,

Thamudic Thamudic, named for the Thamud tribe, is a group of Epigraphy, epigraphic scripts known from large numbers of inscriptions in Ancient North Arabian (ANA) alphabets, which have not yet been properly studied. These texts are found over a huge area f ...

inscriptions in Wadi Rum File:Wadi Rum BW 6.JPG, A

Nabatean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant. Their settlements—most prominently the assumed capital city of Raqmu (present-day Petra ...

temple in Wadi Rum File:Wadi Rum rock formation.jpg, Wadi Rum rock formation File:Wadi Rum 13.jpg, Wadi Rum road File:Wadi Rum 12.jpg, Wadi Rum File:Wadi Rum in Jordan.JPG, Wadi Rum desert File:Wadi Rum, Jordan, The Wadi Rum Visitor Center.jpg, The Wadi Rum Visitor Center File:Wadi Rum Protected Area, Jordan.jpg, In 2011 File:Mountain in Wadi Rum, Jordan.jpg, Mountain in Wadi Rum File:Wadi Rum rock formations along with Bedouin camps, Jordan.jpg, Wadi Rum rock formations along with Bedouin camps File:Eghabsläger.jpg, Secluded traditional Bedouin camp protected by mountains File:Jordan, Wadi Rum Desert, Khor al Ajram.jpg, Plants in arid Wadi Rum landscape File:Jordan, Wadi Rum Desert, Jebel Khazali.jpg, Khazali canyon

References

External links

Official website

Photos of Wadi Rum
The American Center of Research
Photos of Wadi Rum
from the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive {{Authority control

Rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. Rum originated in the Caribbean in the 17th century, but today it is produced i ...

Tourist attractions in Jordan Levant Nature reserves in Jordan World Heritage Sites in Jordan Aqaba Governorate Articles containing video clips Nabataean sites in Jordan Iram of the Pillars