The story of Wadi Rum

This place is also known as the Valley of the Moon. Wadi Rum is a valley cut into sandstone and granite, and with an area of 720 square kilometres it is the largest wadi in Jordan. Its name is believed to come from Iram of the Pillars, a lost city mentioned in the Quran.

People have lived here since prehistoric times, and many cultures, the Nabataeans among them, left their mark in petroglyphs, inscriptions and temple ruins. During the Arab Revolt of 1917–18, the British officer T. E. Lawrence passed through several times and called the valley a 'processional way greater than imagination'. In the 1980s a rock formation once known as the Mountain of the Plague was renamed 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' after his book, although the pillars in the book have no connection with Rum.

Jordan's highest peak, Jabal Umm ad Dami, rises 30 kilometres south of Wadi Rum village. The protected area has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2011.