Stanislaw Warwas

3.00 Poland - 11-Feb-23 -

Visited January 2023.

Solo traveller without a driving license spends more (money and time) in Saudi Arabia than those who rent cars and have a travel pal to share a hotel room. But Saudi Arabia is still a country where you can enjoy hitchhiking and meeting people like anywhere in so called civilised countries…

Hima Cultural Area is pretty remote and not connected to the outside world with any kind of public transportation. I took the night bus from Riyadh to Najran and asked the driver to stop at the conjunction to Hima. I was not alone to leave the bus there and other passengers offered me a lift to Hima site, although it was not on their way. And they offered me a morning coffee in a local restaurant, found a guide in Hima village to show me around, informed the local imam that I was there in case I do not come back before night (😊) and arranged a place to sleep if I’d decide to stay… I left my backpack at the gas station – the local guide said it was safe, and it was! – I started exploring the area.

Here you are free to wander. There are some places with fences but my “guide” told me: it means there something interesting there behind, so let’s go! And he was right – but I do not recommend breaking Saudi laws of not crossing the line without Saudi citizens…

Local people do not know what UNESCO list is. For them Hima site is just a very old inscription or pile of stone, meaning nothing. They do not learn at school about it. Walking around, we played a game: find something and show me… And that was fun! Because it’s the only way to discover the site.  After one hour my “guide” decided to go back home… So I had this area just for myself.

There are 5 wells there and they are still used by local people to bring water to Hima; these wells are part of the property, and do not be misled when you see a big trucks pomping water… The history is still alive.

To get out of the site – you do not even have to wave… Somebody will stop and help you get to where you want to get… And do not wonder if you stop on the way for a meal…

BTW: I spent five hours on the site. (Bring water!) Maybe it is not my favourite ‘library’ and ‘art gallery’, but worth to visit and discover where different kind of writing/visual imagination met…

Jarek Pokrzywnicki

Polska - 25-Jan-23 -

Area visited recently, November 2022. Certainly one of the best example of rock art (similar to those in the Hail region) with interesting addition of ancient wells. As located quite far from main roads site requires organised transport to get there.

It consist of several petroglyph’s sites located near small village of Hima (southern Saudi Arabia, around 120 km from Najran, and some 25 km from main Riyadh – Najran highway) and historical wells (5 cut in the rock, 2 of them looked as still in use).

Wells as a historical site are fenced but the gate is always open. It is probably because they are still in use, during my visit there were several cisterns pumping water from  the tank. The site is located near the village mosque, access by asphalted side road. Entrance to Hima Wells – Google coordinates 18°15'01.9"N 44°27'05.3"E.

Adjacent to wells there is another archaeological reserve – Jabal Hima petroglyphs. Also fenced, access from Hima village by the same road leading to the wells on the left, entrance - same coordinates as above - doors may be closed but they are not locked. On the main rock there are Arabic inscriptions, different animals and humans. English / Arabic table explains that petroglyphs depict military raid, written in Musnad Fort around 518. Frankly speaking there is also a bilingual table (English and Arabic) informing that visiting the site is not permitted. But I noticed that just after leaving the site.

Another site connected with petroglyphs is located on the opposite side of the village - Saidah – Google coordinates (entrance) - 18°14'37.3"N 44°27'43.8"E It located just by the main road leading to Hima. Pretty similar to Jabal Hima, fenced with door that is not locked. Near the entrance there is a similar table informing that trespassing the site is prohibited, so the entry at your own risk. Saidah contains similar petroglyphs as Jabal Hima, mostly inscriptions from early Arabic period.

Official UNESCO website shows more petroglyphs in the area Northeast of Hima. In reality it difficult to explore the area as there are no roads, paths no clues where to find them. While wandering there I found two places with rock carvings but having in mind map scale they are too close to Hima to be Dhibah or An Jamal (those are official locations). But anyway they are both pretty interesting and containing different human figures, different animals, hunting scenes. Approximate Google coordinates of the place 18°15'50.8"N 44°27'50.7"E – second site is located on the opposite side of the valley.

Practicalities:

Hima is a small village, do not expect any restaurants or places to stay. The nearest big city is Najran in the south. Locals do know the area, they can locate petroglyphs (at least those near Hima Wells).

More about the site: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1840351/saudi-arabia

Places on the photo, bottom left, than clockwise: Saidah, Hima Wells, petroglyphs from northeast of Hima, Jabal Hima insriptions.

Zoë Sheng

2.50 Chinese-Canadian - 27-Sep-19 -

It is hard to figure out where these rock art sites really are. The only place I found was the Hima wells area and nearby the well was one, fenced off, with a sign stating tourist visits should be arranged with some phone number. Well, too bad. I noticed there is an opening to the right of that place and it was clearly used by others before. Not much climbing required. I don't want to promote breaking rules, especially in the KSA where you can get into deeeeeeep problems for doing this, but it is the only easy way to actually see them close up. Okay so you don't need to break the law if you have binoculars or a zoom lens. What I saw wasn't impressive either and there are a staggering 7 "similar sites" listed on the document alone, showing not just me that there are enough of rock arts like this. Sure, it's not the same, yes, it does show there was someone here before and lived in the area - but, hello, that's not enough for me looking at the site.

So I did some checking online and the rock art could potentially be impressive if it's open for us to visit. The Mediterranean rock art is open to visit while still being fenced off so we should be able to look at it without a 60m barrier around it that also protects sand. There is a lot of pre-Islamic rock art in the country and I couldn't pinpoint which pictures match to the Najran area. Sad really but I have to give it thumbs down. I really liked the rock art in the north of the country.