The Saudi northwest's dramatic basalt lava fields, Midianite ruins, and Red Sea coral coast between Hegra and Aqaba
Tabuk is a city of 600,000 in Saudi Arabia's northwest, in the ancient Midian region between the Hejaz and the Red Sea coast — a landscape of extraordinary geological variety, from the black basalt lava fields of Harrat al-Uwayrid (one of the largest lava fields on earth) to the turquoise Red Sea coastline at Sharma and Haql, which faces Jordan's Aqaba just 10km across the water. The region contains the ancient Nabataean and pre-Islamic sites of Qurh (ancient Leuke Kome) and the Hejaz Railway ruins, and serves as an overland gateway to AlUla and Hegra (Mada'in Saleh) to the south. The recentl…
The Tabuk region was the southern territory of ancient Midian — the biblical land of the Midianites — and was a key staging point for the Nabataean trade routes between the Red Sea and the Levant. The Prophet Muhammad led the Tabuk Expedition (630 AD) here, the largest military campaign of his life — the expedition is referenced in multiple Quranic verses and remains historically significant in Islamic history. The Hejaz Railway Ottoman fort at Tabuk (built 1900) is among the best-preserved of the railway fortifications; the fort includes a mosque, water tanks, and barracks that served as a m…