Wadi Rum & the Dead Sea

Thanks to some naproxen, I wasn't crippled the next day from hiking a couple extra HOURS while we were lost in Petra. Which was a good thing since we hit the road the next morning to tour Wadi Rum. Wadi is a valley or channel that is dry except in the rainy season and may form an oasis. A local Zalabia Bedouin took us on a driving tour of Wadi Rum, aka the Valley of the Moon, another UNESCO World Heritage site.

In the picture above, you can see the imposing and distinct seven pillar formation behind the reception amenities at the entrance to Wadi Rum. British officer T.E. Lawrence passed through Wadi Rum several times while serving during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18. In 1922, Lawrence published his autobiographical account The Seven Pillars of Wisdom about his time spent serving in the British army as a liaison officer. In the 1980s this large rock formation originally known as Jabal al-Mazmar (Mountain of the Plague) was renamed the Seven Pillars. 

Our Toyota Land Cruiser, seen above, was definitely vintage. From the back seat, it seemed the only thing still working was the engine. The windows were the old school manual roll downs. But it served to get us around to see the highlights.

Above is the Lawrence of Arabia spring... about halfway to the top, hidden in the rocks. If you click on the pic for a closer look, you can just make out the folks climbing up this rock field to get to the spring. After scrambling all over Petra the day before, I decided to just take a picture and listen to what the guide shared with us. Wadi Rum has been used as a filming location for decades, starting in the early 1960s with the movie Lawrence of Arabia. This epic historical drama was based on the autobiography T.E. Lawrence wrote that I mentioned above. More recent films that have used Wadi Rum as their backdrop include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as well as several of the recent Star Wars installments.

Above and below are pictures I took when we stopped to see a water source hidden back in the sandstone rocks, used for century upon century by the local Bedouins. This is Khazali Canyon, where we were also able to climb a bit back into the rocks to see some of the ancient rock paintings and graffiti carved over millennia. It includes Thamudic, Nabatean and Islamic inscriptions as well as petroglyphs. These petroglyphs include feet - see the pic. At the end of this canyon are several man-made rock cut basins for the collection of water. 

Our last full day in Jordan was spent at a resort along the Dead Sea. But first we took a quick car tour through the seaside city of Aqaba for a look-see into a mosque. Aqaba is located on the Gulf of Aqaba, off of the Red Sea, and it was really pretty and modern.

We stopped at the entrance to the mosque grounds to borrow appropriate head coverings to be allowed a look inside. This isn't an historic mosque, but it was beautiful and we were happy to have the chance to tour a mosque in Jordan with our Muslim guide Nidal.

Not wanting to fall behind with my Bible study class lessons while on this amazing trip, I brought my Warren Wiersbe commentary on 1&2 Thessalonians and read it in a cabana out by one of the three pools on the property with a lovely view of the Dead Sea. We had the added bonus of Israeli fighter jets zipping by over the water... very low, loud and visible.