The movie it is most famous for is, of course, Lawrence of Arabia, which first flaunted Wadi Rum's panoramas of orange and pink sand desert loomed over by vast rock outcrops to a global cinema audience.
Today, visitors come to camel-ride, hike, or 4WD across the desert, and scrabble up the rock ridges and cliffs to soak up the scenery for themselves. Just being amid this grand landscape is a major tourist attraction, but the offered desert tour circuits take visitors to some of the most famous photography spots and rock formations.
If you want to experience Wadi Rum fully, camping overnight should be at the top of your things-to-do list while here.
Enjoying the view of the Wadi Rum desert
beganWadi Rum's landscape of sandstone mountains was carved out by millennia of erosion, with wind and water slowly carving out the rock to create wadis (valleys) between.
Human habitation here can be dated back to the Neolithic era, but it was in the Iron Age when Thamudic tribes from the Arabian Peninsula began using this area as part of their trade routes, that Wadi Rum's importance begins.
The Nabataeans had taken control of the desert by the 2nd Century BC as part of their trading empire, which stretched across much of this region of the Middle East. The area's importance, though, fades in later centuries.
During World War I's Arab Revolt, the Arab fighters led by Emir Faisal and T. E. Lawrence spent some time here, and Lawrence's book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, brought Wadi Rum to the attention of the world. It was the 1962 movie, Lawrence of Arabia, with its sumptuous desert panoramas, though, that really kicked off interest in Wadi Rum's tourism potential.
Wadi Rum became a national park in the 1990s. The local Bedouin communities of Wadi Rum are closely involved with both managing the park and providing tourism activities for visitors.
Activities at Wadi Rum
Camels in majestic Wadi Rum, Moon of Valley
the Wadi Rum is prime territory for travellers itching for adventurous things to do.
Activities and tours of the national park can be arranged at Wadi Rum Visitor Center upon arrival. The list of activities that can be organized quickly without any prior booking includes camel-trekking tours (ranging from a couple of hours to a full day), hikes of various lengths, and half and full-day 4WD tours.
Campsite inside Wadi Rum
Although a Wadi Rum day trip offers up plenty of panoramic beauty, the best way to experience the desert scenery here is to stay a little longer and camp overnight.
An overnight Wadi Rum tour means you get to see the desert at sunset and sunrise, when the colours of the cliffs and crags, and sand below, mellow and shimmer in the changing light. With the lack of artificial light, the night sky here is phenomenal and offers some of the clearest stargazing you'll ever have the chance to see.
Several small Rum-Village-based and Bedouin-run tour companies have campsites within the park. These can be booked beforehand through their individual websites or on arrival at Wadi Rum Visitor Center.
The campsites are small and scattered throughout the parking area. All offer a "glamping" experience, with individual tent accommodation (usually with actual beds) and a basic, shared bathroom block. Dinner and breakfast (and transport back to the Wadi Rum Visitor Center in the morning) are usually included in the overnight stay.
Note that overnight Wadi Rum tours are booked with larger tour agencies that operate from Aqaba, Petra, and Ammanusually don't use these campsites. Instead, they use campsites on the edge of Wadi Rum - not actually in the national park area.
The desert surrounding these large camps is not as dramatic as the scenery within the park, and the camps are sprawling affairs, as they're built to facilitate large tour groups.
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