Brief history of Wadi Rum
Wadi Rum has extensive evidence of past cultures, with plenty of rock-carved drawings and ancient Thamudic inscriptions still visible (the Thamud were a tribe, cousins of the Nabateans, who lived as nomads in the deserts of northern Arabia between about the eighth century BC and roughly the seventh century AD), as well as a single, semi-ruined Nabatean temple.
T.E. Lawrence (“of Arabia”) waxed lyrical about the Rum area, describing it as “vast, echoing and godlike” when he passed through in the years either side of the 1916–18 Great Arab Revolt. Appropriately enough, much of the epic Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here in the early 1960s, prompting tourists to visit in dribs and drabs during the years after. But until the late 1980s, Rum village was still comprised mostly of bedouin tents at the end of a rough track, with a single radio-phone serving the lone Desert Patrol fort.
The growth of tourism
In 1984, a British climbing team led by Tony Howard and Di Taylor requested permission from the Ministry of Tourism to explore the possibilities for serious mountaineering in and around Wadi Rum. With assistance from the bedouin and the backing of the ministry, a pioneering guidebook resulted, which brought the area into the forefront of mainstream tourism for the first time.
Since then, the local Zalabia and Zuwaydeh bedouin – sub-clans of the great Howeitat tribe that is pre-eminent in the area – have established co-operatives to organize tourism. With the proceeds, the Zalabia of Rum village built breezeblock houses and a school, and bought buses to link the village with Aqaba and Wadi Musa. The mid-1990s saw a tourist boom that has shown few signs of abating.
Wadi Rum today
Now, during the peak months of March, April, September and October, the deserts around Rum can be thronged with visitors, a strange mix of budget backpackers, well-heeled groups bussed in on whirlwind tours, and serious professional climbers. Of the 5500 people who live in the area, including Disi and outlying villages, roughly forty percent make their living from tourism. However, if you take the two thousand people who live in and around Rum village itself, that figure rises to around 95 percent. Almost everybody has given up keeping goats, and now survives by providing guide and driving services to visitors.
Rum is a Protected Area under the control of ASEZA, the Aqaba municipal authority. Controls are in place to limit environmental degradation while supporting sustainable tourism – though bureaucratic disputes hamper efforts. Some observers even question the benefits brought by “protected area” status, amid claims that the core area of Wadi Rum has seen accelerated decline in recent years, caused by (at the time of writing) 1200 4x4s and exemplified by the presence of 65 tourist camps within the Protected Area alone, 28 of them unlicensed. Nonetheless UNESCO declared Rum a mixed natural/cultural World Heritage Site in 2011. New ASEZA management teams installed shortly thereafter may start to turn things around.
Desert diversions
Horseriding
Horse riding through the desert sands is perennially popular, and a handful of guides offer anything from short excursions (roughly JD25/hr) to a full week or more in the saddle exploring far and wide, camping each night. These are not for novices, though; you should have some experience of handling horses before booking. On the drive into Rum you’ll pass signs for the stables of Atallah Sweilhin (rumhorses@yahoo.co.uk), acknowledged as the leading specialist, contactable through Bait Ali. Atallah also works with French explorer Wilfried Colonna. Also check Awad Mohammed and Amman-based guide Hanna Jahshan.
Rock climbing
If you’re intending to do technical rock-climbing, you should contact one of Rum’s handful of UK-trained mountain guides, all of whom have full equipment and plenty of experience. A few other locals also guide rock climbs; like many Rum bedouin they are naturally competent climbers, and have learnt rope techniques by climbing with experienced visitors. However, Jordan has no system of qualification for mountain guides: staff at the Visitor Centre can put you in touch with someone suitable, but you should establish his experience before agreeing terms. There is an informative leaflet on environmental and safety guidelines, Climbing and Trekking in Wadi Rum Protected Area, available free at the Visitor Centre. For more information and contacts, see nomadstravel.co.uk, wadirum.net and wadiram.userhome.ch.
Hot-air ballooning
Hot-air ballooning offers an incomparably romantic way to experience the grandeur of Wadi Rum. You take off – usually at dawn – from near Bait Ali for a serene float over the mountains: an hour’s flight costs JD130 per person (minimum three people). Alternatively you could buzz the sands in an ultralight, an open-air powered glider operated in tandem with a qualified pilot (JD75 for 20min; JD140 for 40min; JD200 for 1hr). Book with Royal Aero Sports Club well in advance.
Camel races
The locals (and visiting sheikhs) regularly race camels, but generally either at short notice – with no outside promotion – or at hard-to-reach locations. In 2011 a Disi-based entrepreneur launched camel races specifically for tourists to attend. They take place on pre-advertised days six times a year, at a track near Disi. Admission (from a bargain JD10 upwards) gains you a seat in one of the 4x4 cars which drive along beside the camels as they scamper – regrettably just ordinary nags, rather than sleek, pure-bred racing camels.
Full-moon gathering
New-agey ideas are slowly entering Rum’s tourism profile, with a few guides now hosting one-off desert yoga or meditation sessions. Regular full-moon gatherings are more approachable, featuring a sunset journey to a tranquil corner of the desert outside Disi for a short camel ride, dinner under the stars and stories round the campfire, with the option to sleep in a quiet eco-friendly campsite. It costs JD75/person including dinner, breakfast and overnight, with profits staying within the Disi community. Check schedules and book ahead at wadirumfullmoon.com.
Wadi Rum: what to expect
The weather
Wadi Rum is elevated at around 950m above sea level. Bear in mind the extremes of temperature. Although it may be killingly hot during the day, nights even in summer can be chilly and, in winter, a dusting of frost isn’t uncommon.
Tribal territories
Although the landscapes in and around Rum look similar, three clearly defined tribal areas intersect here. The Protected Area of Wadi Rum itself, in and around Rum village, is the territory of the Zalabia. The area around Disi village, east and northeast of Wadi Rum (including the easternmost part of the Protected Area) is Zuwaydeh land. North and west of Wadi Rum, around the village of Shakriyyeh, live the Swalhiyeen tribe.
As you approach the Visitor Centre, the jeeps parked outside the walls belong to the Zuwaydeh: they are permitted to follow routes only in the outlying zone dubbed “Operator 2”. Beyond the Visitor Centre, through the gateway, are cars belonging to the Zalabia; they stick to routes in the central heartland of Wadi Rum, dubbed “Operator 1”. The Bait Ali complex is in Swalhiyeen territory, and has guides for camel, horse and 4x4 trips in this less-explored area.
There’s much jockeying for position, with the Protected Area administrators bending over backwards to upset nobody (and thereby pleasing nobody either). Although Wadi Rum itself falls within Zalabia territory, there is nothing to stop you exploring further afield.
Planning your time
Visiting the desert is at least as much about the people as it is about the sand. The best way to see Wadi Rum is to pre-book with a named guide. The scenery is stunning but it can be hard to make sense of it – or see the best of it – on your own. The bedouin of Rum and Disi are, on the whole, skilled, business-minded professionals who know how to deliver an experience to remember. Book ahead and you’ll be met at the Visitor Centre at a prearranged time to be whisked off for your agreed tour. If you choose to stay overnight, all meals and accommodation will be included as part of the deal. If you arrive at the Visitor Centre without a booking, all is not lost. We cover the options under “On-The-Spot Tours”.
Either way, there’s a collection of specific sites to visit in the deep desert, which we’ve outlined in this account along with a few pointers for walkers to get off the beaten track. There are literally dozens of possible itineraries. Any of the routes can be strung together to form a two-, three- or four-day adventure, with intervening nights spent camping in the desert. There are also plenty of opportunities for journeys further afield, including the desert track to Aqaba (50–70km), covered in a day by 4x4, two or three by camel. It’s possible to reach Mudawwara by camel in about four days, Petra or Ma’an in five or six.
A night in the desert
There are no hotels in or near Wadi Rum: the only places to sleep are the numerous bedouin-run camps dotted around the desert. Even at the best places, washing facilities are somewhat rudimentary and beds (and bedding) rather make-do. Just so you know: camps within the Protected Area are small, placed in isolation from one another far out in the desert, accessible only by 4x4 and sleep ten or fifteen people maximum in bedouin-style goat-hair tents. Most camps at Disi are larger, sometimes cheek-by-jowl with one another; they are often accessible by tour buses driving on dirt tracks, frequently set around circular performance areas with amplified music and electric floodlights, and sleep anywhere from 50 to 250 people, often in army-style canvas tents pitched in rows.
Walking alone: a warning
A final note. It barely needs saying, but here goes: it would be suicidally reckless to tackle any of the mountain routes in and around Wadi Rum without a local guide. Walking on the desert floor is fine – if you’re fit enough to cope with hours on soft sand – but even then, if you choose to do a long-distance walk alone, you should register your intended route at the Visitor Centre and let staff know when you are planning to return. For multi-day walks, and all types of scrambling or climbing, it is essential to have a knowledgeable local guide: this is exceptionally harsh terrain and apparently safe rock can be treacherous.
Arabian oryx in Rum
Wadi Rum is the setting for an ongoing experiment in wildlife reintroduction. The Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) – a white antelope with long, straight horns that formerly roamed the deserts of the Middle East – has been extinct in the wild in Jordan for many decades. A captive breeding programme in the 1970s and 80s at Shaumari was successful, but after the first Gulf War 1.7 million sheep and goats, brought into Jordan by refugees from Iraq, decimated the rangelands through overgrazing, rendering the planned oryx release impossible. Oryx have remained in captivity at Shaumari ever since. Other regional projects have fared little better: Oman’s oryx reintroduction recently failed due to excessive poaching, and schemes in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Syria and elsewhere have had varying degrees of success – always (bar one release area in Saudi Arabia) with the oryx remaining behind fences.
In 2009, after meticulous planning over several years, twenty oryx were brought to Wadi Rum from Abu Dhabi for acclimatization in a large, fenced zone behind Jabal Rum, away from tourist routes, before release into the open desert. Twenty more followed in 2012, boosting the herd’s viability; a hundred gazelle also live alongside. By all accounts, the local bedouin are thrilled to see the animals back in the area: oryx have a uniquely poetic resonance in bedouin culture. They have vowed to protect them, not least because they also recognize that oryx-spotting safaris could become a major money-spinner. An oryx-spotting ecolodge is also planned. Time will tell how the project develops: for up-to-date information, ask at the Visitor Centre.
Cut-price tours of Wadi Rum: a warning
Numerous scammers – notably at cheap hotels in Wadi Musa and, to a lesser extent, in Aqaba, Amman and Dana – offer cut-price tours of Wadi Rum that may leave you disappointed. Here’s why.
Wadi Rum or Disi?
Unlicensed operators are not permitted to bring tourists into the Wadi Rum Protected Area, which is patrolled by rangers. This means that anyone offering cut-price tours of Wadi Rum – such as a budget hotel in Aqaba or Petra – will not be taking you into Wadi Rum*: they will, instead, drive you around the deserts of Disi nearby, and host you at one of the Disi tourist camps. There’s nothing wrong with Disi – it’s beautiful – but it’s not what you’re paying for. Yet these scammers will swear blind that you’re being taken to the real Wadi Rum – even to the extent of lying to you about which camp you’re in (we’ve had reports of tourists being dumped at one of the Disi camps by a driver who told them it was Bait Ali). Rum camps are invariably smaller, cosier, quieter and less commercialized than those in Disi.
Commission?
If you pay, say, JD25 to a hotel in Petra for a tour of Wadi Rum, it’s likely that at least JD10 of that will go straight into the pocket of the hotelier. That leaves JD15 for the man who’s actually going to drive you around – which means you get a very short tour. For comparison, the going rate for a decent tour of Wadi Rum booked directly with a reputable guide, including overnight camping, all transport, meals and facilities, is roughly JD40–60 per person. Pay significantly less than that, and you can be sure you’ll be short-changed.
Guide or driver?
At cut-price rates you are unlikely to be hosted by a guide – that is, someone who lives in Wadi Rum, speaks English and can explain the area and its sights to you. Instead you’re likely to get someone who can drive the car, but little else – probably friendly enough, but possibly not even Jordanian.
Being taken around the desert in a 4x4 is never cheap – why should it be? – and that’s even more true for somewhere as extraordinary (and fragile) as Wadi Rum. Out here, you really do get what you pay for.
*The Cleopetra hotel in Wadi Musa is an exception – to our knowledge, this is the only Petra hotel offering tours that genuinely do enter Wadi Rum.