Jubbah & Ha'il

The northern Saudi Arabian city of Ha’il was an important station for the annual Hajj caravans travelling between Baghdad and Mecca on the Darb Zubaydah and once vied for power with Ibn Saud to control the Arabian Peninsula.

Cradled by the rugged mountains of the Jabal Shammar, Ha’il is dominated by the restored 17th-century A’arif Castle, a mudbrick citadel that sits atop a strategic hill that can be seen for miles around. On a half-day tour, this landmark can be combined with a visit to the Qishlah Fortress with its distinctive eight towers, a photo stop at the ruined Barzan Palace, and browsing through the Al Khobool flea market (Haraj).

Outside the city, the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Jubbah and Shuwaymis reveal some of the world’s most exciting rock art. Jubbah is the more accessible of the two sites and is located in the midst of the Great Nefud Desert, a 90-minute drive to the northwest of Ha’il. Here, on the celebrated walls of Jabal Umm Sinman, Qattar Cave and Ghouwtah, are extensive panels of petroglyphs with extremely finely executed figures showing great artistic accomplishment that shed light on human activities, hairstyles and clothing during the Palaeolithic period. Some of the rock art may be as much as 11,000 years old. Lady Anne Blunt, one of the first Europeans to witness Jubbah’s art, wrote in 1879: ‘Jubbah is one of the most curious places in the world, and to my mind one of the most beautiful.’

En route to Jubbah you might want to detour to and explore the scenic northern Jabal Aja mountains – once a natural hidden fortress for the rulers of Ha’il. Another excursion from Ha’il travels to the south and visits the fortified remains of the historic oasis city of Fayd on the old pilgrim road before travelling through a barren volcanic landscape to the Hutaymah Crater – one of the Ha’il region’s most impressive natural wonders.