Himā Cultural area

Visited January 2023.

Solo traveller without a driving license spends more (money and time) in Saudi Arabia than those who rent cars and have a travel pal to share a hotel room. But Saudi Arabia is still a country where you can enjoy hitchhiking and meeting people like anywhere in so called civilised countries…

Hima Cultural Area is pretty remote and not connected to the outside world with any kind of public transportation. I took the night bus from Riyadh to Najran and asked the driver to stop at the conjunction to Hima. I was not alone to leave the bus there and other passengers offered me a lift to Hima site, although it was not on their way. And they offered me a morning coffee in a local restaurant, found a guide in Hima village to show me around, informed the local imam that I was there in case I do not come back before night (😊) and arranged a place to sleep if I’d decide to stay… I left my backpack at the gas station – the local guide said it was safe, and it was! – I started exploring the area.

Here you are free to wander. There are some places with fences but my “guide” told me: it means there something interesting there behind, so let’s go! And he was right – but I do not recommend breaking Saudi laws of not crossing the line without Saudi citizens…

Local people do not …

Area visited recently, November 2022. Certainly one of the best example of rock art (similar to those in the Hail region) with interesting addition of ancient wells. As located quite far from main roads site requires organised transport to get there.

It consist of several petroglyph’s sites located near small village of Hima (southern Saudi Arabia, around 120 km from Najran, and some 25 km from main Riyadh – Najran highway) and historical wells (5 cut in the rock, 2 of them looked as still in use).

Wells as a historical site are fenced but the gate is always open. It is probably because they are still in use, during my visit there were several cisterns pumping water from the tank. The site is located near the village mosque, access by asphalted side road. Entrance to Hima Wells – Google coordinates 18°15'01.9"N 44°27'05.3"E.

Adjacent to wells there is another archaeological reserve – Jabal Hima petroglyphs. Also fenced, access from Hima village by the same road leading to the wells on the left, entrance - same coordinates as above - doors may be closed but they are not locked. On the main rock there are Arabic inscriptions, different animals and humans. English / Arabic table explains that petroglyphs depict military raid, written in Musnad Fort around 518. Frankly speaking there is also a bilingual table (English and Arabic) informing that visiting the site is not permitted. But I noticed that just after leaving the site.

Another site …

It is hard to figure out where these rock art sites really are. The only place I found was the Hima wells area and nearby the well was one, fenced off, with a sign stating tourist visits should be arranged with some phone number. Well, too bad. I noticed there is an opening to the right of that place and it was clearly used by others before. Not much climbing required. I don't want to promote breaking rules, especially in the KSA where you can get into deeeeeeep problems for doing this, but it is the only easy way to actually see them close up. Okay so you don't need to break the law if you have binoculars or a zoom lens. What I saw wasn't impressive either and there are a staggering 7 "similar sites" listed on the document alone, showing not just me that there are enough of rock arts like this. Sure, it's not the same, yes, it does show there was someone here before and lived in the area - but, hello, that's not enough for me looking at the site.

So I did some checking online and the rock art could potentially be impressive if it's open for us to visit. The Mediterranean rock art is open to visit while still being fenced off so we should be able to look at it without a 60m barrier around it that also protects sand. There is a lot of pre-Islamic rock art in the country …