This ancient city lies in the North of the Kingdom – close to the town Al-Ula. Now I know that apart from the monuments there is a great scenery of red and brown mountains around Al-Ula, so even if Madain Saleh is closed it is worth to visit the area.
Yes, I was reading that everyone need a special permit to visit Madain… 4 days before my arrival to Al-Ula I sent an e-mail to the hotel enclosing my all data and asking them to obtain the permit from the Riyadh… The response was immediate: “We need 15 days to obtaint the permit for you”…
Driving 800 km through the desert I was desperate, but I decided to try anyway… In the Al-Ula hotel the confirm: no permit – visit not possible! I went anyway to the gate of the Madain Saleh (22 km from Al-Ula – great scenery of sands, rocks and palms)… The policemen asked of course for the permit…
Believe me – you can break many barriers if you are open to the people, if you respect them, if they see your situation and determination…
I visited Madain Saleh – the Second Petra! The tombs are not as ornate as in Petra but I think there are more of them… And the scenery is really great. It is big are so in the heat it is not possible to visit all attractions on foot. You can see there also the old railway station of Hejaz Line (Damascus-Medina).
Few people saw great Madain – I was so happy, that I did not care about another 800 or 900 km ahead of me – to go back to Jeddah…
