Things to do in Wadi Rum Village

Wadi Rum is a valley of sand with mountains standing in it. The sand is red from iron, and the jebels are sandstone on granite. The protected area covers about 74,000 hectares.

The UNESCO listing came in 2011, for the rock art as much as the scenery. Some 25,000 petroglyphs and 20,000 inscriptions are recorded here. People have lived in it for twelve thousand years.

What a jeep day covers

There are no roads past the village, only tracks the drivers know by shape. The afternoon is timed to end at a sunset point. Every camp has one.

• Khazali canyon. A slot a hundred metres into the rock, with inscriptions cut into both walls.
• The rock bridges. Um Fruth is a short scramble. Burdah is a proper climb, most of a morning.
• Lawrence's spring. A Nabataean seep above the valley floor, named for the book rather than proved by it.
• The red dunes. Steep sand banked against a black cliff, climbed for the view down the valley.
• Umm ad Dami. Jordan's highest point at 1,854 metres, near the Saudi border, half a day up and back.

Nights in camp

The village is where the road ends. Nearly all the camps are run by Bedouin families out of it, and most guests barely see it. Beds run from goat-hair tents to domes with a clear roof.

Dinner is usually zarb, meat and vegetables buried in a sand oven and dug out at table. The sky is the other reason to stay. No town light for sixty kilometres.

Climbing and walking

Bedouin hunting routes go up the jebels. Climbers graded them in the 1980s, from scrambles to long lines on Jebel Rum. A guide is the rule on the harder ones.

Camel and horse cross the same ground more slowly. The quiet is the point.

Practical

• Getting in. Entry is at the visitor centre on the main road, under the ridge called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The Jordan Pass covers it.
• Transport. Aqaba is about an hour away and Petra roughly two. Camps collect guests at the centre or the village; cars stay behind.
• Temperature. Summer afternoons pass forty degrees and winter nights drop below freezing. The gap between noon and midnight is wide all year.
• What to bring. A wind layer, closed shoes, a head covering and more water than seems necessary. Sand finds every lens and port.
• Camps. Power runs on generator hours, not all night, and water is trucked in. Signal is patchy and gone in the canyons.
• Booking. Overnight camps and balloon flights fill up in spring and autumn, the good months.
• Etiquette. Conservative area. Cover shoulders and knees, and ask before photographing people.