Rojal Alma

A mural along the road

Some kind of display, ditto

 

After driving west down the crazyroad (previous post) from Al Souda, we went to Rojal Alma, a five hundred year old town in a steep mountain valley, which used to be a waystation for the camel trains carrying Frankincense out of the mountains of Oman and Yemen to Jeddah and on to Egypt. 

A herd of cattle in the amphitheatre!

Jacob and Jerry

Rojal Alma, though a forgotten dusty place now, was once an important regional seat of governance, and a certain wealth accrued from the passage of the lucrative trains. The town boasts a distinctive 'beehive' sort of architecture, where houses of 3 and 4 stories are massed together on the steep canyon wall to form a large interconnected building...

The building complex was restored, I'm guessing, about twenty years ago now, and is still semi-maintained - you can see where a large portion has fallen off in the last couple of years, though. There was a local caretaker there to take our entrance fees and sell us the last two books they had about the place, in English. It's an interesting building, and an interesting read. 

I'm not sure I would want to step onto any of those verandas...

Rixat and Jacob

Rixat, in the kitchen area

Part of the kitchen area

A giant gourd - for storing water

 

A hammer made from a burl

 

Oud - for burning as incense?

The most surprising, and strangest room for me was the one with a sign over the door saying 'The Room of Social Politeness' in English. Inside were what looked like strange kinds of pliers, tongs and so on, and a large set of leg shackles (for twelve). I can imagine the teaching methods for 'social politeness'. 

Traditional knives: each made for, and worn by, a specific person

 
There were also a lot of bolt action rifles from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century - sort of the Lee-Enfield, 303 ex-British army type of rifles. 

Apparently the Ottomans made it this far at the turn of the twentieth century and perhaps during the first world war...a couple of shells. 

Wonderful examples of the unique kind of painting of the interiors practiced only here, by women artists. 

 
And some wild, ratty dusty stuffed...hyenas, martins, wolves, and even a small crocodile...so these animals really did exist here!

A hyena

A martin and a trap

Also a number of framed letters, and a carved stone, no idea what they were about, of course.

A very interesting museum.

As we were leaving the village to head home, we met a herd of camels.

The big gun in D'arb

A dusty day down by Jizan

Thanks to Rixat Abdursal for taking some of these pictures, and for the use of his camera for the rest.

Al Souda

Al Souda is the highest point in the Asir Mountains, the chain that runs Northwest to southeast - sort of - across Saudi Arabia and into Yemen. These mountains are the fabled home of the ancient incense trail from Oman to Egypt and Africa. Apparently Jizan was a major port of debarkation for the Red Sea route to Egypt; the other, overland route ran along the mountains to Jeddah and across the Red Sea there. The BBC did a nice documentary on it here.

High montaine plateau

The highland plateau that Abha sits on is dotted with farms having distinctive terraced fields, and the summer palaces of the rich. The ecoregion is described here.

Villa and ruins of old house

 When the summer heat oppresses everywhere else in the Kingdom, the Asir Mountains are wonderfully temperate, with daytime temperatures under thirty degrees, and short periods of rainfall nearly every day. In comparison, in my first year in Jizan it rained, I think, twice.

Bigbigbig Saudi flag

The peak is about an hour west of Abha. The Saudis come here from June till September on vacation; I've never been up here during Ramadan, but I'll bet it's hopping! The area around Al Souda is a park; there is also a campsite near the cable station.

We went to a resort a couple of kilometres from the cable station; it was deserted; out of season I guess.

I’ve been to Al Souda twice: once we rode the cable car down into the valley and back up – 6000 feet of elevation in 30 minutes, not for the faint of heart.

The view down the valley - and underneath

Steep!

Returning cablecar

 

Monkey at the turnout

Once, at the turnout, I bought a half a litre of honey (dark! - like buckwheat honey) from a mountain man. I thought at the time that I probably was paying too much at 105 SAR for it (about $28) - but it was worth every penny.

The view from the turnout - the road is to the right

The other time Jacob drove his Corolla down the road that runs from a few kilometers past the cable car depot – a hairpin loaded 15 k/hr. roller coaster, not to be recommended in an automatic. Super steep in places, very interesting and a quite dangerous road. Almost as fabulous views as the cablecar.

The base cablecar station is on the left

In the valley, new buildings built up around the distinctive older ones