Sandstone and granite mountains rising straight out of red sand, where Lawrence fought and where every film that needs Mars is shot. Sleep in it.
What it is
A protected area of about 720 square kilometres in southern Jordan where sandstone and granite mountains — jebels — rise up to 800 metres straight out of flat red sand, with almost no transition. The effect is less like a desert than like an ocean floor with the water removed.
It has been inhabited for twelve thousand years. There are Thamudic and Nabataean petroglyphs on the rock faces, and the Zalabia Bedouin who run almost all the tourism here are living in the area their families have used for generations.
T. E. Lawrence operated from here during the Arab Revolt and wrote about it in Seven Pillars of Wisdom; the mountain now called the Seven Pillars is named after the book rather than the other way round.
Because it looks like nowhere on earth, it has stood in for Mars in a long list of films — The Martian, Dune, Rogue One, Prometheus.
Staying the night
This is the whole thing. Day trips exist and they get you the rock formations in flat midday light, which is the least interesting version.
Bedouin camps range from simple shared tents with a mattress to bubble domes with transparent roofs and en suites. The mid-range camps — private tent, shared bathroom, dinner cooked in a zarb, an underground sand oven — are where the value is.
Dinner is usually chicken or lamb buried in the sand oven for hours, and it is genuinely excellent. Tea is constant. Most camps have music around a fire and it is not staged for you, or not entirely.
The stars are the part nobody is prepared for. There is essentially no light pollution and the Milky Way is bright enough to read the ground by.
What you do in the day
Jeep tours — half day or full day in the back of a pickup — take in the main sites: Lawrence’s Spring, the Khazali Canyon with its inscriptions, the sand dunes at Um Ishrin, Burdah rock bridge, and various arches you can climb.
Camel treks are slower and quieter and are how the area was crossed before pickups. Two hours is plenty for most people.
Climbing and scrambling is world-class and largely un-bolted; Burdah Bridge is a straightforward scramble with a guide, and there are serious multi-pitch routes for those who climb.
Hot air balloons run at dawn in the cooler months.
Practical
Entry is through the visitor centre at Rum village, and is included in the Jordan Pass. Your camp will collect you there; you do not drive yourself into the protected area.
Book direct with a camp where you can. Most are family-run and the difference between the price they charge and an agency’s is substantial.
Temperature swing is the thing to pack for: 35°C in the afternoon and 5°C at night in spring is normal, and winter nights go below freezing. Camps provide blankets, and a warm layer is still necessary.
Nothing is sold in the desert. Bring water, and cash, because card machines are optimistic out there.
Combining it
The standard Jordan route is Amman → Jerash → Dead Sea → Petra → Wadi Rum → Aqaba, and Wadi Rum sits naturally between Petra and the Red Sea. Two nights in the desert after two days at Petra is the shape of a very good week.
