Tayma Oasis

Tayma was a caravan oasis on the route between the Levant and southern Arabia, occupied from the Bronze Age, walled with a rampart running for kilometres, and it enters recorded history when Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, moved his residence here for ten years in the sixth century BC, an episode attested by inscriptions found at the site. The Bir Haddaj is the oasis well and the reason for everything else: an open shaft some eighteen metres across, once worked by camels hauling water in leather buckets on wooden frames around the rim, restored and still the centrepiece of the town. Excavated quarters, the walls, and a local museum complete a visit.

History

People settled the oasis in the early 4th millennium BC, and a massive wall of mudbrick and sandstone went up around it in the mid-2nd millennium BC; an inscription of Ramesses III found nearby in 2010 is the first hieroglyphic text found on Saudi soil. Charles M. Doughty mapped the site in 1877, Charles Huber found the Tayma stele, now in the Louvre, in 1883, and the German Archaeological Institute is still excavating (Wikipedia, Tayma).

What to look for

• Bir Haddaj - the great open well at the centre of the oasis.
• The city walls - the long rampart lines around the ancient settlement.
• Excavated quarters - the exposed areas of the ancient town.
• The museum - the local collection of finds and inscriptions.

When to go

October to April; the northwest is very hot in summer and cold at night in winter. Mornings are best. Sites keep daytime hours with a midday break and some require arrangement.

Before you go

Excavated areas are at foundation level and interpretation is limited. Some parts of the site are fenced and access is restricted. The museum keeps irregular hours. Tayma is a long drive from either Tabuk or AlUla.

Nearby

AlUla lies southwest; Tabuk is northwest.

Key facts