If the monumental tombs of Madain Saleh are the must-see destination in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, the surrounding area is also worth a trip. What is probably the best example of a hidden marvel lays just a couple of kilometers northeast of the ancient Nabatean city and is a sandstone massif crossed by numerous deep and steep canyons where erosion has sculpted incredible shapes.

How to visit Jibal Al-Rukkab

As described above, Jibal Al-Rukkab is for experienced and well-equipped drivers only. Indeed, the labyrinth-like system of valleys, the soft terrain, and the tricky sand banks are like traps that can put people into big trouble. It is also very important to check the weather forecast before entering the maze of canyons as they can get quickly flooded during heavy rain.  We strongly recommend visitors ask for the services of our professional guides who know how to avoid these pitfalls.

​Tour operators organizing trips of Jibal Al-Rukkab

Mahajah is a rocky desert located on the southeast of Tabuk Province  where erosion of sandstone formations created out-of-this-world landscapes.  It lays on the southwest of the large sand dune desert, the Nefud Al-Kebir, an ancient area known for having hosted early humans for several millenia, leading to the rich rock art found in Mahajah.

Mahajah is not well known  because of its remoteness and difficult terrain that dictates slow progress when travelling, even to the mightiest of four-wheel drive cars. That means that this part of the Saudi desert remains relatively untouched. As a result it hosts many incredible pristine sites, and it should remain that way.

The Land of Natural Arches

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is full of amazing but little known sites. Among its unknown features are natural arches that are found in many parts of the country, even in Riyadh Province. Mahajah hosts the most spectacular ones, however, especially around Jebel 'Uwayqir. There, the erosion from wind and rain sculpted a sandstone formation into three arches, the tallest reaching as high as 40 meters.

Seen from the distance the arches look tiny, but when arriving from the western side of the rock formation an impressive diamond-shape arch reveals itself. The size is striking and the symmetry of this natural sculpture is incredible.

When looking through the incredibly regular arch, the top of a second one - even higher - appears. If the first arch requires a bit of climbing to reach, this second one can be crossed by several cars simultaneously! Its elegant, slender silhouette is a beauty.

​Ancient Rock Art

The stunning natural arches of the Jebel 'Uwayqir have attracted humans for millennia, as attested to by the numerous drawings and texts carved on its sides. The truly amazing rock art in Mahajah is found at Hafirat Laqat. There, a natural rock wall, more than 160 meters long, is covered with thousands of carvings showing life-size camels, horsemen, goats, buffaloes, abstract shapes, and even a boat!

There is an incredible concentration of so-called Thamudic inscriptions. Thamudic describes the script used by Bedouins some 2 000 years ago. There are also few Nabatean texts, proving that this place, which even today is very remote, was once regularly crossed by travellers and caravans.

A Land of early European explorers

In 1883, Charles Huber, a French explorer, led his second expedition into Arabia, up to Hail Province, and went through Mahajah several times.

​How to visit Mahajah

By yourself

Mahajah is a very remote area because of its tough, rocky terrain, with fields of soft sand that dictates slow progress. Also, it is full of dead-ends, so it is only for experienced and fully equipped drivers! We strongly advise to go with one of our tour guides that know the way, and the great spots!

​With our guides

The Nefud Al-Kebir (النفود الكبير) is a large sand dune desert in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula. In Arabic its name means ‘The Great Sand Dune Desert’ and it is also known simply as the desert of Al-Nefud (صحراء النفود). It stretches over 290 kilometers from the ancient city of Tayma’ on the west until the city of Hail on the east and is 225 kilometers wide between Hail and Dumat Al-Jandal on the north.  It covers an area of an area of 103 600 square kilometers in the provinces of Hail, Al-Jawf, and Tabuk. From its eastern tip, the Nefud Al-Kebir is connected to the Dahna, a narrow corridor of sand dunes that stretches over 1 300 kilometres and reaches largest sand dune desert in the world, the Rub' Al-Khali.

As the Nefud Al-Kebir is the last large area with sand dunes before Iraq and the Levant it has for long held the reputation of being an impassable and inhospitable desert that kept the Arabian Peninsula out of reach from the rest of the world. But this is a myth. A famous example is found in the book ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by T. E. Lawrence, where he describes a daredevil crossing of the Nefud Al-Kebir in order to attack Aqaba. But Lawrence’s tale is not consistent with the reality of the terrain as there is simply no need to cross the Nefud to go to Aqaba, regardless where you start from.

Instead, the Nefud Al-Kebir played a great role in the history of the Arabian Peninsula and still carries some traces of very old human activity.

​A land of the first Homo Sapiens

In April 2018, researchers from the the Max Planck Institute announced the discovery at Al-Wusta in the Nefud Al-Kebir of an 85 000-year-old phalanx that is so far the oldest directly dated fossil of  Homo Sapien outside Africa and the Levant. It proves that early human dispersal out of Africa was not limited to winter rainfall-fed Levantine Mediterranean woodlands immediately adjacent to Africa, but extended deep into the semi-arid grasslands of Arabia, facilitated by periods of enhanced monsoon rainfall.

​Still in the Nefud Al-Kebir, the team of Michael Petraglia from the Max Planck Institute discovered a couple of years earlier at the site of Al-Marrat a small lithic assemblage that dates back to 55 000 years ago, emphasizing the long term human occupation of the area, at least during humid phases.

​A host of some of the most brilliant rock art in the world

If the climate became dryer from the 5^th millennia, human presence didn’t disappear from the Nefud. Again in Jubbah, some inscriptions in Thamudic and Nabatean scripts that are probably around 2 000 years old show that the Nefud was still crossed by caravans at that time.

Early European explorers also made the crossing the of Nefud Al-Kebir, such as the Frenchman Charles Huber, who went from Hail to Sakaka in October 1883 and made a stopover in Jubbah. During later trips Huber even carved his name on rocks not far from the Nefud Al-Kebir.

​Exploring the Nefud Al-Kebir

When penetrating the Nefud Al-Kebir, the first striking aspect is the vegetation. Indeed, millions of small bushes actually make the progress by car quite tedious, especially when it is necessary to gain momentum for climbing a sandy slope.

A second interesting feature is the shape of the dunes that are quite hilly yet scalable, unlike the steep mountains of sand of the Rub’ Al-Khali. Even the large crescent dunes that reach over 50 meters high are relatively easy to circumvent.

​Another characteristic of the Nefud Al-Kebir is the variety of color of its sand that ranges from the regular beige to red, but also from yellow to white on its edges.

​How to visit the Nefud Al-Kebir

One of the most famous sand dune deserts around Riyadh,  the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is named Ad-Dahna. This desert is in fact a great arc of reddish sandy terrain, extending about 1 300 kilometers from north to south, linking the two greatest deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, from the northeastern edge of the Nefud-al-Kebir to the northwestern borders of the Rub al-Khali (the Empty Quarter).

The dunes of Ad-Dahna that are found just 80 kilometers east of Riyadh along the Dammam highway are about 30 meters high, although the part of Ad-Dahna desert which is 200 kilometers north of Riyadh hosts some of the most impressive dunes in the Riyadh Province. Indeed, along the ranges (veins) of 'Urayq As-Siru Al-Aswat, the 'Urayq As_Siru Al-Gharbi, and the 'Irq Al-Kannasiyah are some massive star-shaped dunes that peak at up to 100 meters. The fact those dunes stand in a flat plain emphasizes their mountain-like massive shapes.

In addition to the landscape, the Star Dunes offer some great sand driving with all kinds of difficulties from the easy sandy track to the impassable mountains of sands. Thanks to the tracks created by the local Bedouins it is relatively easy to progress along the ranges of Star Dunes but once engaged in one of the "corridors" between two ranges of dunes the only way to change direction is to come back on one's tracks.

How to go to the Star Dunes?

By yourself

The Star Dunes area is definitely for experienced sand dunes drivers only, and requires complete sand recovery equipment, not only because of the difficulties inherent to the sandy terrain but also because the area is quite remote, therefore drivers need to be independent in case of issues.

With one of our tour guides

The safest option is to rely on our guides that can ensure that all requirements for such trip is met.