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Tabuk is the capital of Tabuk Province in north-western Saudi Arabia, the largest city of the region and its gateway from Jordan, lying on a plain 600 to 800 metres above sea level some 700 kilometres north of Medina. It is known for its Ottoman castle, the spring of Ain Tabuk and the Hejaz Railway station, and for the wild landscapes of ancient Midian around it.
The area roughly matches the land of Midian, and Ptolemy may have recorded the town as Tabawa in the 2nd century. Tabuk became famous for the Expedition of Tabuk in 630, then grew as a stop for pilgrims on the Syrian Hajj road, guarded by a fort built in 1559. The first train of the Hejaz Railway reached its station in 1906.
Summers are mild for Arabia and winters cold, with snow some years on Jabal al-Lawz. From the city, roads lead to the palm canyon of Wadi Al Disah, the Nabataean tombs of Maghayir Shu'ayb, the Gulf of Aqaba at Haql and the split boulder of Al Naslaa.
Tabuk Castle is the Ottoman fort in the old centre of Tabuk, built in 1559 to guard the spring and the pilgrims on the Syrian Hajj road to Medina. Its two floors ring an open courtyard with a mosque and a well, tiles from a 17th-century restoration line the entrance, and it is now a museum.
Tabuk Hejaz Railway Station was one of the main stops on the Ottoman line from Damascus to Medina, and its first train arrived in 1906. Thirteen stone buildings stand in a row beside the old track on some 80,000 square metres, restored as a museum where an old steam engine and wagon are on show.
Al-Tawbah Mosque in the old town of Tabuk marks the place where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have prayed during the Expedition of Tabuk in 630. First built of mud and palm fronds under Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, it was rebuilt by the Ottomans in 1651 and again in the Saudi era in white stone.
Ain Tabuk, also called Ain Sukkar, is the ancient spring beside Tabuk Castle, around which the town grew and where Hajj caravans from Syria stopped to rest. Tradition says it flowed strongly after the Prophet washed in it in 630, and its stone pools were rebuilt and enlarged over the centuries.
Qal'at al-Muazzam, south-east of Tabuk, is one of the largest Ottoman forts on the old Syrian Hajj road, built in 1622 under Sultan Osman II to watch over and protect pilgrims. Beside it lies a large square reservoir first dug by the Ayyubid ruler al-Mu'azzam, a nephew of Saladin.
Maghayir Shu'ayb, the Caves of Shu'ayb, lies about two kilometres south of Al-Bad' near the Gulf of Aqaba, in the heart of ancient Midian. Its rock-cut tomb facades in the sandstone cliffs are 1st-century Nabataean work, much like those of Hegra, and local tradition ties them to the prophet Shu'ayb.
Haql Beach lines the Saudi shore of the Gulf of Aqaba around the town of Haql, near the head of the gulf and just across the border from the Jordanian city of Aqaba. Chalets and seafront parks face the calm water, and on clear days Aqaba, Eilat and the Egyptian town of Taba show across the gulf.
Al Naslaa Rock stands about 50 kilometres south of the Tayma oasis, a sandstone boulder some 6 metres high and 9 metres wide split cleanly in two along a joint. Both halves balance on small pedestals carved by wind erosion, and its south-east face is covered with petroglyphs of horses and ibex.
Wadi Al Disah is a valley some 220 kilometres south-west of Tabuk, running 125 kilometres between red sandstone cliffs and towers up to 500 metres high. Springs flow all year past palms, papyrus and oleander, Nabataean tomb facades are cut in the rock, and it is on UNESCO's tentative list.
Jabal al-Lawz, the mountain of almonds, rises to 2,580 metres in the ancient land of Midian about 200 kilometres north-west of Tabuk, above the Gulf of Aqaba. Snow often covers its granite peak in winter, relict juniper woods grow on its slopes, and rock art around it may date to 10,000 BC.
The Hisma Desert spreads west of Tabuk towards the Jordanian border, a sandy plain broken by red sandstone mesas and mountains that runs on into southern Jordan around Wadi Rum. Nabataeans and other Arab tribes left inscriptions here in the Hismaic script, which is named after this desert.
King Salman Royal Reserve is the largest nature reserve in Saudi Arabia, covering 130,700 square kilometres across the Tabuk, Al-Jawf, Ha'il and Northern Borders regions. Created in 2018 from three protected areas, it shelters over 300 animal species and more than 230 kinds of plants.
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Photo: Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
