From the petroglyphs and Ha'il, it's another two hundred kilometres to of Dawmat al Jandal. It's not very touristy, but it was the largest town on the way to Tabuk with several hotels to choose from. Overall, as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, the north of the country, specifically these parts, aren't very busy - the petroglyphs are usually the northernmost the average tourist will go. 

Dawmat Al-Jandal was nominated quite this year under the name Ancient Fortified Oases of Northern Arabia, along with Tayma, Qurayyah and Ha'il. Dawmat (or Dumah) Al-Jandal was located on the trade route connecting the Gaza Strip and the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf and Babylon. According to historical sources, this place was inhabited as early as the first millennium BC. It was plundered by the Assyrians in the seventh century BC and was inhabited by the Nabataeans in the first century AD, then by the Romans. The city also bears Byzantine and Islamic influences.

The main monument is the stone castle of Marid, which gave the city its name - Jandal means stones. The castle is said to have been built by the Nabataeans (a civilization to which we owe the Jordanian Petra and the Saudi Hegra, more on them in a later article) and has been rebuilt many times throughout its history, thanks to both the Ottoman Turks and the city's later inhabitants. Today it is an interesting archaeological complex, besides the castle there is a preserved village with a mosque and wells. There is a museum nearby, it was closed at the time of our visit so we simply parked on the roadside by the archaeological complex and walked in. We said hello to the guard, who asked where we were from and to our surprise he immediately responded "Oh, yes, Slovakia! Hamsik!" He then explained in broken English that the castle itself was inaccessible as the stone walls had pieces falling off them, and apparently they had had accidents there (hopefully no tourists had gotten hurt), but we could see the mosque and parts of the fortifications.

Once again, quite an empty site all for us to explore. It was interesting and we got some nice shots. Unfortunately, the signposts were in Arabic only, so Google Translate came to our help. A pleasant visit with access to many parts of the site and no entrance fee as a bonus.