First published: 04/04/20.

Ammon Watkins 3.5

Rock Art In The Hail Region

Rock Art in the Hail Region (Inscribed)

Rock Art in the Hail Region by Ammon Watkins

We also visited the Jubbah section of the rock art in early Feb 2020. It is an easy day trip from Hail and we went on a friday afternoon. Note that the site is only open after ~3pm on fridays but can be visited in the morning also during the rest of the week. Having found the place more easily than we thought, we arrived a little after 2pm and sat in the deserted parking lot unsure if it would really open for only a couple hours. Sure enough it did but in the worst case scenario it is possible to see a few of the petroglyphs through the fence in all else fails.

There were maybe a dozen visitors in total including one small tour group. A surly guard opened the gate and waved us through without any offer of guides or anything. This was the biggest mistake on our part. Inside there is a path that circles rock formations covered with petroglyphs but no information explaining what we were seeing. There was much more rock art than I'd been expecting but which ones were 10000, 5000 or 2000 years old? I can see and intuitively understand animals and early writing but I'd probably be more inclined to give the site more stars if I'd had more explanation. No doubt further development of the site is planned and if their Vision 2030 comes to fruition, more restrictions will be necessary as well. It made me cringe to see visitors climbing on the rocks and directly over the petroglyphs themselves risking the destruction of such precious heritage. 

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