History, Tombs, and Wells in Al Bad'/Madian

We are starting our tour with Madian - presently referred to as Al Bad'.

Our first short stop on the way will be at Ship Mountain where you will get to see the famous mountain that is shaped exactly like a ship. Our next stop will be at a small local museum on our way, followed by a trip until we reach Al Bad' where we will have our traditional lunch. After lunch, we will start our journey in Madian, or Al-Bad', which is a small province located 2,5 hours away from Tabuk region. There, we will have a closer historical look at the Jethro's Cave, or "maghayer shu'aib" in Arabic, in the land of Madian. A lot of people know Al-Ula but not everyone knows about this collection of Nabatean tombs in Al Bad'. These tombs are carved into the rocks, decorated in an artistic way similar to the Nabatean tombs found in Madain Saleh and Petra in Jordan - it is an undiscovered gem hidden here in Saudi Arabia that we absolutely recommend visiting.

Our next stop will be in Maqna city where we will visit The Well Of Moses and where you will learn about the reasoning behind its name. The final stop for the day's tour will be at Tayyeb. It is believed that when Moses brought the people out of Egypt through the Red Sea, they reached the land of Madyan at Tayeb Al-Ism, also called The Valley of Moses. We will be having a walking tour in one of the magical natural wonders of Saudi Arabia that takes visitors by surprise. This incredible natural feature of Tabuk Province is located on the Gulf of Aqaba, just 15 kilometers north of the coastal town of Maqna. When approaching the road that runs along the turquoise waters and white beaches of the Gulf of Aqaba, what strikes people first is the imposing shape of the 600-meter-high granite massif of the Tayeb Al-Ism, whose sharp edges fall into the Gulf of Aqaba. While getting closer to a nice little palm grove ornamenting the bottom of the cliffs, the mountain side that looks towards the Gulf suddenly reveals the stunningly high edges of a narrow canyon whose entrance is just a few dozen meters from the sea. There, the granite massif looks like it's been torn in two by a supernatural force. You can drive your car for the first hundred meters of the canyon but some boulders don’t let cars get very far. A wooden bridge spanning the rocks allows pedestrians to carry on deeper into the meanders of this massive breach through the mountain. From the bridge, the Tayeb Ism visitors see another marvel - a small stream of crystal clear water than runs through the gravel all year long. As a result, the wadi hosts numerous palm trees and reeds that create little oases surrounded by the vertiginous sides of the canyon. We will have a chance to watch the sunset in this gorgeous valley before we leave to have dinner and head to Tabuk.