Historic Tayma

After a breakfast of rusk and fresh cheese (for a change rather than processed cheese), we departed around 0940.  The day’s drive to Tayma is around 3h and I drove for 1h45 of that.  That has got to break my record for my share of driving for the day!

Getting to Tayma’s museum, it looked not quite like a demolition site but was being seriously rebuilt.  Going a bit further to find the Tayma’s historic area, we got to the Arradam Palace around 1245.

We were told that it was closed but after E did some name-dropping (of his professor), we were allowed in for a brief look.

We continued to the main historical site further down the road where I had my first experience with Saudi’s style of tourism.  We had turned up just before the 1330 tour of the area’s sites.

It was pricey but the experienced started with coffee, dates, water and snacks.  Then the sightseeing took place as follows:

1. We looked out to an old paleolake (dried up lake) from 300,000 years ago of where dried salt bed is now visible.
2. Nearby were the ruins of the Ancient Temple of Salm (previously known as the Hamra Palace).
3. We then hopped in the shuttle to take us to where we had already visited, the Qasr Al Radhm. This is believed to be the residence of King Nabodius, the last Babylonian king who was supposed to have conquered Tayma in 553 BC and resided for 10 years.
4. We then took a longer drive to Bir (well) Haddaj. This was a large well that has never run dry and locals liken extremely generous people to have generosity like Bir Haddaj.
5. After that, we walked through the mud-walled alleys to Souq (market) Najm. Having seen plenty of buildings built from mud in recent times, the nearby oasis with the greenery of the date palms, appealed to me more.
6. Lastly, we visited Tayma Fort (Qasr Al-Amin Abdul Al-Karim Al-Raman Amir Tayma) going through the various rooms, audience hall and mosques.  There was a fort within a fort for the ruler’s father (or was it grandfather).

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The entire tour took about 2h and we were asked to do a survey afterwards before taken back to the starting point where we had left our car.  We took a bit longer and missed the shuttle van but they ran us back without question.

Here’s my take on my first experience with Saudi’s tourism style:

• One pays more for the guided experience compared to just an entry ticket as in other countries.
• One gets some hospitality with it and the insight of a storyteller who is probably a polyglot rather than someone with in-depth historical or archaeological knowledge. This is better than in other countries where some people would be walking around unguided looking cluelessly at piles of rubble if they don’t actively read up about it beforehand.
• I think it is a good way of targeting medium to high-end customers and is probably workable if the industry does not end up going really high-volume mass market.
• There are nearly no foreign workers in front-facing roles. Even staff offering the hospitality snacks and drinks are locals whereas those tidying up after may be foreign.

It was about 1600 when we took a drive along the outside of the city’s perimeter wall, built along three sides of the city.  It was barely discernible in a few areas.  The area was used as a rubbish tip and there were a couple of dried-up camel carcasses!

I had booked the Al Ablaq Hotel by WhatsApp as they weren’t open for bookings on regular websites even though it was listed.  It turned out to be a beautiful property.  E spoke Tamil to the receptionist and we got superb service.  We were directed to a Keralan restaurant nearby for dinner.  We finished the night with a walk in the old town area, in particular near Bir Haddaj and the fort.