On our trip to Saudia Arabia we tried to visit Al-Faw in October 24 and did not succeed. The site is double fenced with the standard yellow ca. 3m fence with barb wire on top, the Saudis use to protect their cultural sites. The outer fence is is the problem. It’s minimum 200m from the site, which make it impossible to get to the core zone or even see more than a few walls. The building closest to the main street, about 200m from the fence, is a Ranger Station. Around 10 Ranger cars were parked there, so we tried our luck and went in. The ranger was very friendly, but would not let us pass even the outer fence under any circumstances. There are some info panels inside the station, but it’s clearly no visitor center.

We have seen a few places the Saudis have ready for visitors and Al-Faw is far away from that. I am sure there will be a visitor center, parking lot and access road to the site. None of these exist in 2024. The ranger was talking about “maybe” 2025, but I don’t think this is realistic. I would rather bet on 2030.

There is currently no legal or semi legal way to get to the core zone. As much as it hurt, we could not tick this site off (and neither should anybody else). I will try again, when the site officially opens. I will obviously also not rate it, as this is not possible without a proper visit.