Here, after walking through the short Valley of the Moon or Lawrence of Arabia Pass, did we come to our destination – the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Camp in Barrah Siq.

The camp was not quite like this scene from the movie Lawrence of Arabia!

This camp’s “parking lot” had trucks, not horses!

The camp was one of many that was tucked up near a rock wall, on a man-made foundation!

As we approached the camp, there are carvings of TE Lawrence and Prince Abdullah in a rock. I am no historian, and what I have read on the internet about Prince Abdullah was that he and TE Lawrence did not have a good relationship. It was Abdullah’s brother, Faisal whom TE Lawrence connected with.  But apparently this is the location where Prince Abdullah and TE Lawrence first met in the early 1900s.

Carving of TE Lawrence:

Carving of Prince Abdullah:

On another rock is this larger carving of TE Lawrence of Arabia:

Once inside the camp, our guide gave us Arabic tea!

We hung out, laughed and had some fun!

Other guides with their tour groups started to arrive at the camp. It was here that I was grateful our guide didn’t pressure us to buy souvenirs (that were plenty in the camp) like the other guides did to their tour groups!

Here you see the parking lot is much busier now!

This camp is more of rest stop/souvenir shop for both the guides and the tour groups. A place where guides have a smoke, tea and talk with other guides other in Arabic while tourists enjoy Arab hospitality of tea while deciding if they want to buy souvenirs or not.

Our drive back to our camp wasn’t a back track from where we came, but a well-timed trip back to where we started, to finish the tour at exactly 1.5 hours later!

Pictures on the way back to camp!

Back at camp!

This was a fun tour, for sure!  But, according to my tour itinerary the famous sites such as the many-domed Jebel Um Ishrin (maybe I did see and take a picture of – but wasn’t made aware?), the Burdah Rock Bridge, Khazali Canyon and the natural watering hole of Lawrence’s Spring were all must see sites in Wadi Rum. I’m thinking this tour was designed to see locations near our camp that best highlighted Wadi Rum in the hour and a half time we paid for that was prearranged by my travel agent.

S, 🙂