Wadi Rum
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How it came to be
Wadi Rum in southern Jordan, near the Saudi border, holds evidence of 12,000 years of human life. Some 25,000 rock carvings, 20,000 inscriptions and 154 archaeological sites record life from the Neolithic to the Nabataean period, and inscriptions in Thamudic, Nabataean and Arabic scripts show that literacy was widespread among its herders.
Between the 13th and 6th centuries BC the area is thought to have been part of the kingdom of Edom. A Nabataean temple was found in 1933. In April 2025 Jordan announced its first royal Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription, found here, naming Ramesses III.
The area became a protected area in 1997 and was inscribed in 2011 as a mixed cultural and natural site. Zalabia Bedouin, who settled here around 1980, now make up most of its people.
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