Mud Village
The Mud Village in Al Ula was a very interesting place to visit with hundreds of mud houses on both sides of the street. This is the village where many Hajjis would stop to and from Mecca. Some Hajjis after completion of Hajj would choose to remain and live in the mud village. Segregation was practiced in that the women visited each other and ran their errands traversing narrow covered alleyways from one home to another whereas the men had their own pathways via the roofs of the mud homes. However when heavy rains occurred, the women would be isolated to their homes as the alleyways would be flooded with water. The mud village is continuing to be preserved so visitors can appreciate the way of life as it was during those early times.
Hijaz Railroad
Al Ula and Maida’n Salah is also home of the Hejaz Railway. One will see the wooden railway stations which were constructed every 25 kilometers and can visit the original main railway station. Several of the old wooden carriages remain. The railway ran from 1900 to 1912 and is a modern piece of the history.
The main railway station also had a guest house for the weary travelers who wished to have a rest before continuing their journey. I hope that Saudi tourism will further preserve this guest house and perhaps convert it into a stopping place for visiting tourists to enjoy tea and Arabic kawa. While I am suggesting, it would also be convenient to have facilities as it is located remotely from town and a gift shop would be a nice touch too.
Desert Diamonds
Although I failed to take my camera with me on this particular sunset foray, I learned all about the desert diamonds. Desert diamonds are pieces of quartz which can be found in rose, yellow and white or clear colors. The stony desert area around Al Ula is ideal for going out and hunting for desert diamonds. These quartz stones can be cleaned, cut and polished and make beautiful gem stones which in turn can be converted to rings, earrings, pendants and bracelets.
Everyone in our group came back with at least one or more of these precious stones adding yet another special memory of the trip to Maida’n Salah.
Can you imagine how romantic to be presented with a diamond and being told, I went out into the desert and found it myself!
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I do hope that your suggestion for the restoration and use of the guest house will be taken into consideration by concerned authorities
The desert diamonds bit sounds wonderful and terribly romantic
It would be an apt situation for a proposal (always thinking of stories)
What a wonderful trip and thank you for sharing with your readers.
Perhaps you could keep your photos in a Flickr account and display them on your sidebar. It would make for easier access and wider sharing of your fascinating journey.
Jewaira,
Thanks so much for your comments and suggestions. Interestingly since posting about Maida’n Salah I have noticed my blog traffic/comments drop by about 15 – 20 per cent. I guess that’s because these are the kind of posts one would look at once and halas and not come back for continued comments like other posts.
Okay…stupid question time but I’m probably the least technical person hosting a blog…what is a flickr account? Where would I start to review and learn about this? I can conceptualize your suggestion and think it sounds worthy of consideration.
Mud Village
The Mud Village in Al Ula was a very interesting place to visit with hundreds of mud houses on both sides of the street. This is the village where many Hajjis would stop to and from Mecca. Some Hajjis after completion of Hajj would choose to remain and live in the mud village. Segregation was practiced in that the women visited each other and ran their errands traversing narrow covered alleyways from one home to another whereas the men had their own pathways via the roofs of the mud homes.
How could the Hajjis tell one home from another? How could they know the way to visit each other and find their way back? Amazing!
Good questions A2S but just like us nowadays, they found their way!
Desert diamonds! Ohhhh! Reminds me of the beauty of “sea glass”. Jewelry is also made from sea glass.
What is sea glass, Safiyyah?
If you go to the DESIGN in your wordpress account administrator page, you will find the WIDGETS feature.
One widget feature allows you to have photos on the side bar of your wordpress blog.
Photos displayed are hosted on FLICKR
FLICKR is a very popular site where you can upload your photos (and now videos). If you have travel photos etc… that you would like to organize and share with your readers, then you could open a FLICKR account, upload your photos there, and have them displayed on your blog sidebar.
It is just a suggestion. However, if you would like any further assistance I would be more than happy to share with you whatever I know. Contact me if you like.
With regards to blog traffic and comments, I honestly wouldn’t worry too much about them. You blog what you feel like blogging about and the information will be there for all kinds of readers who may be interested now or in the future.
I always enjoy personal travel impressions and I thought you did an exceptional job.
Jewaira,
Thanks for the advise and directions! Right now I’m still trying to work on a widget to add an item from Lofter and once I figure that out, I will certainly look into flickr too.
Best Regards,
Carol
Carol, don’t forget that WordPress has a very good FAQ: everything is explained very clearly: I understand most of it. That means something!
You have been suffering this tremendous drop in stats because I’ve been ill, and have not been visiting! And it is your own fault too of course; I’ve noticed you’ve declined at least one invitation to start a pandemonial explosive comment-section!
About the post: very interesting, that mudvillage! and wunderfully preserved!
Did I see the colour green in the corner of your photo’s?
The railway: That trainstation! it could be in some lonely spot in America! Too twilight-zone!
The guesthouse: what an amazing building! You could certainly make it into a fantastic project!!!
So how many desert-diamonds did you manage to grab? Would it be useful if I mail you my adress?
I see via my stats that traffic has jumped right up again…so it is back to your return and comments Aafke or because I’m starting my usual posts asking questions?!
The md village was incredible and a photographers dream. All told, I took more than 600 photos during the trip to Mada’in Saleh! The color of the landscapes there was unlike anything I’d seen before in the Kingdom. Even my Saudi spouse remarked he was unaware there was places like that in KSA.
I managed to come back with just shy of a dozen desert diamonds. Now I’ve got to clean and polish them!