Wadi Rum

Very long ago, this land was under the sea. Sand and mud settled on the bottom and turned into rock.

Later the land rose up. Wind and water carved the rock into mountains, arches and deep cracks.

Wadi Rum's story is written in two kinds of rock. At the bottom is very old granite. On top lie layers of sandstone, mostly purple and white, that NASA says formed hundreds of millions of years ago, when the sea was higher and this area was the muddy floor of an ocean.

After the sea dropped, the land was lifted up along cracks called faults. Wind and water then wore it away, carving valleys now filled with sand and leaving tall rock mountains standing between them. Salt crystals and living things helped break the rock too, carving arches, caves and honeycomb patterns.

NASA's Earth Observatory describes Precambrian granite basement, partly eroded into steep mountains and raised along criss-crossing faults, overlain by Cambrian and Ordovician sandstones and loose sands. A 2021 Earth Observatory article adds that the mostly purple and white sandstones formed hundreds of millions of years ago on an ocean floor above the granite, and were then uplifted and sculpted by wind and water into inselbergs, spires and sand-filled valleys.

UNESCO attributes the landforms to lithology, tectonics (rapid uplift, numerous faults and joints) and surface processes, including weathering under today's desert climate and wetter climates in the past, over millions of years. It singles out drainage incision, severe salt and biological weathering, undermining of steep sandstone cliffs and "the world's most spectacular networks of honeycomb weathering features".

Long ago, people carved pictures into the rocks of Wadi Rum.

The pictures show people and animals. People also wrote words on the rocks in old kinds of writing.

Wadi Rum is like an open-air history book. UNESCO counts about 25,000 petroglyphs, pictures carved into rock, and 20,000 inscriptions, along with 154 archaeological sites. The carvings show people and animals and are found on boulders, stones and cliff faces.

The inscriptions are written in four different scripts, including Thamudic, Nabataean and Arabic. UNESCO says they show that many of the herding people who lived here could read and write. Wind and rain are slowly fading some of the oldest carvings.

UNESCO's criterion (iii) rests on some 25,000 petroglyphs, 20,000 inscriptions and 154 archaeological sites documenting at least 12,000 years of continuous habitation and land use, with finds spanning the Neolithic to the Nabataean period. Engraved human and animal figures on boulders and cliffs reveal an elaborate pictorial culture, and Thamudic, Nabataean and Arabic inscriptions in four scripts testify to widespread literacy among pastoral societies.

The art remains in its original setting, but rain and wind erosion have faded many petroglyphs, and modern graffiti damages some original drawings and inscriptions. Because so much has been documented, UNESCO notes, the record still conveys the traditions of its makers and remains an important research resource; it also calls for care to prevent artifacts being removed.

Wadi Rum gets very little rain. Only a few plants grow.

But people have found ways to live here for thousands of years. They kept animals and caught rainwater to use later.

Wadi Rum is naturally dry, NASA says, with little rain and only sparse plants. Even so, people have lived here for thousands of years. UNESCO explains that the variety of rocky landforms helped people settle here, and that people built systems to catch water.

The climate became drier in the Bronze Age, more than 4,000 years ago, yet communities stayed, moving with their herds or farming where they could. UNESCO calls this a story of people's adaptability and ingenuity in making the most of scarce resources. Today the village of Rum lies in the buffer zone around the protected area.

UNESCO's criterion (v) presents Wadi Rum as evidence of the continuum between settled and mobile lifestyles in a desert: rock art, inscriptions and water catchment systems document successive communities practicing mobile animal husbandry and agriculture, who sustained a continuous presence after the climate became drier in the Bronze Age (3rd millennium BCE). NASA notes that nomadic people have lived in the area for thousands of years.

Pressures today come partly from that same human presence: UNESCO lists visitor pressure (car tracks and tourism infrastructure), possible encroachment by Rum village, groundwater exploitation and firewood collection as threats needing attention. NASA's 2001 satellite image also shows, just east of the protected area, circular fields watered by center-pivot irrigation.

Wadi Rum looks a lot like the planet Mars.

Moviemakers have filmed stories about Mars here.

Seen from space, Wadi Rum's colors and textures closely match those of Mars, NASA's Earth Observatory says. That is why filmmakers have used it to stand in for Mars, including in the 2015 movie The Martian.

The landscape the cameras showed is real: towering sandstone and granite rock islands, called inselbergs, rising from valleys covered in iron-rich sand.

A 2021 NASA Earth Observatory article compares a Landsat 8 view of Wadi Rum with Mars, noting that its colors and textures are a close match, and reports that Ridley Scott used the valley repeatedly as Mars in The Martian (2015), along with other films. The scenery featured towering sandstone and granite inselbergs above valleys of iron-rich sand, and formations such as the Seven Pillars of Wisdom on Jebel Um Ishrin.

NASA's earlier Earth Observatory caption, for a 2001 satellite image, already described Wadi Rum as the film set for a movie about Mars, and noted that nomadic people have lived in this unearthly landscape for thousands of years.

The desert is hot and dry. Wear a hat and drink lots of water.

Never scratch or write on the rocks. The old pictures are very special.

Wadi Rum is a dry desert, so carry plenty of water and protect yourself from the sun. Keep vehicles to existing tracks: UNESCO warns that car tracks spreading across the desert are one of the threats to the landscape.

Protect the rock art too. Never touch, scratch or write on the rocks, because modern graffiti has already damaged some ancient carvings. Leave stones, pottery and other finds where they are, and do not collect firewood.

UNESCO identifies visitor pressure, especially car tracks and tourism infrastructure, as a priority threat, along with possible encroachment of Rum village, groundwater exploitation and firewood collection; modern graffiti has damaged some original drawings and inscriptions, and special attention is needed to prevent the removal of artifacts. The site is managed by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority with a management plan and a team of rangers.

Visitors reduce their impact by keeping vehicles to established tracks, never marking or touching rock art, leaving archaeological material in place and avoiding firewood collection. In an arid landscape with little rain and sparse vegetation (NASA), sun protection and ample water are essential.