Wadi Rum is one of those landscapes that seem to belong to another planet, and in fact cinema has used it many times as if it were one: its plains of red sand, dotted with colossal mountains that rise like stone islands in a sea of dunes, have stood in for Mars and imaginary worlds in dozens of films. But up close, and above all at sunset, when the sun sets the sand and rock ablaze in shades of red, orange and violet, and at night, under a blanket of stars like you rarely see, Wadi Rum needs no fiction: it is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful deserts in the world.
This 'Valley of the Moon' has been Bedouin land for millennia, and its history is carved into the rock walls: there are thousands of petroglyphs and inscriptions —left by prehistoric hunters, by caravans, by the ancient Nabataeans and Thamudic peoples— that earned it recognition as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The legendary Lawrence of Arabia fought and wrote here during the Great Arab Revolt, and his memory lives on in the names of places. Today, the same Bedouin tribes who inhabit the desert welcome travellers with tea, hospitality and unforgettable nights in camps under the stars.
This guide helps you plan your Wadi Rum experience: how to get there, how much admission and 4x4 tours cost, which camps and activities to choose (from camel rides to climbing or ballooning), what to see in the desert (natural arches, canyons, dunes, petroglyphs) and why sleeping here for at least one night is a must. Wadi Rum is one of those places you feel with your whole body: the absolute silence, the vastness, the cold of the night, the camp fire and that starry sky which, once seen, you will never forget.
Wadi Rum has been inhabited since prehistoric times: its rock walls bear thousands of petroglyphs and inscriptions left over twelve thousand years by prehistoric hunters, by the Thamudic peoples, by the Nabataeans —who built temples here and controlled the water and caravan routes— and by the Bedouin tribes who still live here. Its name echoed around the world in the 20th century thanks to T. E. Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia', the British officer who, during the Great Arab Revolt (1916-1918) against the Ottoman Empire, crossed these deserts with the Arab troops of Prince Faisal and described their landscapes with admiration in his book 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom', which gave its name to one of the valley's mountains. Declared a protected area and then a Unesco World Heritage Site (mixed, for its nature and its culture) in 2011, Wadi Rum combines a unique desert landscape with the living heritage of the Bedouins. Its full history is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The monumental south: Nabataean Petra carved into the rock, the Wadi Rum desert, the country's only port at Aqaba and the castles of the old King's Highway.
Read the history of The south: Petra, Wadi Rum and the King's Highway →If you book from here we earn a commission and you pay no more. Prices and availability come from Civitatis.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
At first glance, the Wadi Rum desert looks like an empty, timeless land, untouched by human history. Nothing could be further from the truth. Its sandstone and granite walls are actually one of the oldest and most continuous records of human presence on Earth: they hold thousands of petroglyphs, inscriptions and rock drawings carved over some twelve thousand years, from the prehistoric hunters at the end of the Ice Age through to historical times. It was precisely this extraordinary blend of natural landscape and cultural testimony that led UNESCO to declare Wadi Rum a World Heritage Site in 2011, in the rare mixed category (natural and cultural).
The carvings tell the story of the peoples who passed through here. The oldest show human figures, hunting scenes and animals that seem surprising in the middle of the desert today (ostriches, ibex, camels, even cattle), proof that the climate and landscape changed over the millennia. Later came inscriptions by peoples such as the Thamudic tribes, in an ancient Arabian script, and by other groups who left their names and prayers in the stone. Far from being isolated, this desert was for thousands of years a corridor of life, a crossing point for hunters, herders and caravans.
It owes that role as a crossroads to a scarce and precious resource: water. Despite its dryness, Wadi Rum has springs and the ability to collect water from occasional rains, which made life possible and allowed trade routes to pass through. Whoever controlled the water controlled the desert, and that was one of the keys for the peoples who left their mark here, including the great protagonists of the next chapter: the Nabataeans of Petra.
Of the many peoples who left their mark on Wadi Rum, one stands out: the Nabataeans, the same brilliant merchant people who built nearby Petra. Between the 4th century BC and the 1st century AD, the Nabataeans controlled the caravan routes that crossed these deserts laden with frankincense, myrrh and spices, and Wadi Rum was part of their territory and their trade network. They did more than pass through: they left many inscriptions on the rocks and built infrastructure.
Near the village of Rum stand the remains of a Nabataean temple, probably dedicated to the goddess Al-Lat or to other deities of the Nabataean pantheon, built next to a spring. The choice of site was no accident: the Nabataeans, masters of water management, made use of the desert's springs and protected them, as they were essential for survival and for trade. The Nabataean and Thamudic petroglyphs and inscriptions you can see in canyons such as Khazali record this presence and the constant flow of camel caravans through the valley.
Wadi Rum was therefore one more piece of the Nabataean trading empire, whose heart was Petra. When Rome annexed the Nabataean kingdom in AD 106, and later as the trade routes shifted, the desert's importance as a caravan corridor declined, just like Petra's. But the desert was never completely abandoned: as it had been since prehistoric times, it remained the land of nomadic peoples who knew how to read its signs and find its water. And those peoples, the Bedouin, are still the owners and guardians of Wadi Rum today.
During the long centuries after the decline of the Nabataeans and the Romans, Wadi Rum was above all Bedouin land. These nomadic tribes, who raised camels and goats and were adapted to the harshest way of life, roamed the desert following pasture and water. They lived in goat-hair tents (the famous 'bayt al-sha'ar', 'houses of hair'), were organised into clans and lived by ancestral codes of honour and, above all, hospitality. For the Bedouin, welcoming travellers, offering them tea and protecting them was (and still is) a sacred duty.
The tribe most closely linked to Wadi Rum is the Zalabia, together with other clans of the great Howeitat confederation, who live in and around the village of Rum. For generations their lives unfolded outside official history, in a desert they knew inch by inch: every spring, every shaded canyon, every safe route between the mountains. That intimate knowledge of the land, handed down from parents to children, is what they now share with visitors who explore the desert in their 4x4s or on camelback.
Traditional Bedouin life has changed a great deal in recent decades. Most families have settled in villages such as Rum, with houses, a school and services, and many have found a new livelihood in tourism, setting up camps and guiding travellers. Even so, they keep their language, their traditions, their cooking (such as zarb, meat cooked under the sand) and that deep sense of hospitality that makes a night in a Wadi Rum camp less a tourist attraction than an encounter with an ancient culture. It was into this Bedouin world that, just over a century ago, a foreigner arrived who would make Wadi Rum famous around the world.
In the middle of the First World War, between 1916 and 1918, these southern deserts were the stage for an episode that would make them legendary: the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Encouraged and backed by the British, the Arab peoples took up arms against Turkish rule, with the promise of a future independent Arab kingdom. The revolt was led by Sharif Hussein of Mecca and his sons, among them Prince Faisal, and fighting in its ranks was a young and unusual British officer who would become a legend: Thomas Edward Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia'.
Lawrence, an archaeologist by training, spoke Arabic fluently and was deeply fascinated by the Bedouin world. He joined the Arab forces, adopted their dress and customs, and took part in the guerrilla war against the Ottomans, attacking the Hejaz Railway and coordinating the Arab forces in a campaign that culminated in the capture of the port city of Aqaba in 1917 and, finally, the entry into Damascus. Wadi Rum was one of the bases and routes of that campaign, and Lawrence crossed its sands and camped beneath its mountains alongside the Bedouin.
Lawrence immortalised these landscapes in his famous autobiographical book 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom', in which he describes Wadi Rum with admiration, speaking of its grandeur as 'vast, echoing and God-like'. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom mountain, which now greets visitors at the entrance to the desert, takes its name from that title. Lawrence's story, later turned into myth by cinema (the monumental 1962 film was partly shot here), tied the name of Wadi Rum forever to the epic birth of the modern Arab world. The promises of independence, largely broken by the European powers after the war, would shape the fate of the whole region, but the legend of those desert riders lives on.
Today Wadi Rum is one of Jordan's great icons and one of the most famous and admired deserts in the world. Its breathtaking landscape (plains of red sand, colossal mountains, arches and canyons) has made it a favourite location for international cinema. Films shot here range from the classic 'Lawrence of Arabia' to many blockbusters that have used it as the surface of Mars or of imaginary planets, bringing its image to millions of viewers. That starring role on the big screen has boosted its appeal to travellers.
In 1998 Wadi Rum was declared a protected area, and in 2011 UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List as a mixed site. This recognised both its exceptional natural value (geology, landscape, wildlife and plants adapted to the desert) and its cultural value, for the twelve thousand years of rock art and inscriptions held in its rocks. The area's management aims to balance conservation with tourism and with the rights of the Bedouin communities who live there.
Because Wadi Rum is still, above all, Bedouin land. The same tribes that have lived here for centuries are the ones who welcome travellers today: they drive the 4x4s, run the camps, cook the zarb, serve the tea and share what they know about the desert and its stars. That continuity between the nomadic past and the tourist present gives a visit a special authenticity. Sleeping in Wadi Rum, under one of the starriest skies on the planet, surrounded by the total silence of the desert and the echo of twelve thousand years of history in the rocks, is one of the most memorable experiences a trip to Jordan can offer, and an encounter with a way of life and a landscape that seem to exist outside time.
