|
| The
Al Jawf Region. |
| Al
Jawf is the frontier province of northern Saudi Arabia. Its principle
towns are Sakaka, the regional centre and Domat Al Jandal. It covers an
area to the south of the Wadi Siran and the whole of the Sakaka basin. |
|
The
main highway throughout the region travels south from the town of Arar
through Zallum and then turns west at Sakaka to pass through Domat Al
Jandal, Al Adari and Abu Ajram where it splits north west to Al Qurayat
and the Jordanian border, and south west to Tabuk
|
|
| North
of Domat is a rocky plateau which stretches approximately 400 Km to
the northern border with Iraq. Whilst to the south lie 80,000 sq km of the
vast sandy emptiness of the Nafud Al Kabir (The Great Nafud Desert). |
|
All
other routes through out the region are desert tracks accessible by four
wheel drive vehicles only. |
| The
Oassis Of Domat
Al Jandal. |
 |
The
oasis town of Al Jawf is now known by its former name of Domat Al Jandal,
(literally, “Domat of the
Stones”), the Dumah as mentioned in the Old Testament and was referred
to as Adumatu by the Assyrians of around 500 BC.
It
is a town at the cross roads of two of the major trading routes of the
past. Islamic pilgrims from Iraq and Iran and traders from the ancient
cities of Baghdad and Basra would pass through Domat on their southerly
trek to the holy cities of Mecca and Madina in western Arabia. |
|
The
east west traders would carry Frankincense from the Sultanate of Oman and
other exotic goods brought from India and the Far East, unloaded at the
gulf ports and transported overland by camel train to the Gulf of Aqaba,
the ancient city of Petra and north to the eastern shores of the
Mediterranean. Domat
Al Jandal lay at the junction of these two ancient trading routes.
|
| Qasa Marad |
|
Qasa
Marad, was constructed around 2000 BC. A fortress which was instrumental
in defeating an invasion by the armies of Queen Zanubia of Tadmur. |
|
| The minaret of the mosque to the left of the fortress
was built around the 17th year of Hijra (600 AD) by the Caliph Omar Ibn Al
Khattab. It is one of the earliest known mosques in Islam and is still in
use to the present day. |
|
Sakaka |
|
|
The
Qasa Zebal. This irregular shaped
fort is composed of 4 towers with a circular building inside . It sits
atop of a high outcrop of rock overlooking the oasis of Sakaka |
|
|
Rajajil
:
At
the base of a low lying outcrop are a group of impressive standing stone
pillars roughly carved and arranged in linear groups aligned along a
general north bearing. The pillars measure up to 3m in height and some
have graffiti type rock art and inscriptions on them. They are dated to as
early as 2000 BC and could be classed as Saudi Arabia’s own “Stone
Henge”. |
