Wadi Rum, Jordan

Famously described by T.E. Lawrence as "vast, echoing and Godlike" and often deemed to be one of the most stunning deserts landscapes in the world, Wadi Rum is a nature-lover's paradise.

Wadi Rum's beauty can only be described as breathtaking. One of Jordan's main tourist attractions, the area is spotted with fascinating yellow, white, red and brown sandstone mountains that are cut by wide canyons and unique colorfully decorated geological formations. The landscape is also distinct for its natural delicate arches and bridges, and the mushroom-shaped rock configurations carved and shaped naturally by years of wind and erosion.

Wadi Rum holds fauna and flora both rare and endemic. A greater emphasis has been placed on the Wadi's fauna after a baseline survey detected the existence of the Ibex, Gray Wolf, Blandford's Fox, the rare Red Fox, and the Sand Cat within, poppies and the striking Black Iris, J the area. Rare species of small plants and herbs can be found by the inquisitive traveler. Red anemones, Jordan's national flower, all grow at will by the roadside and in more quiet reaches. Plants used as herbal medicinal cures by the Bedouins for centuries are found in the mountainous regions.

The several Bedouin tribes that live in Wadi Rum play an impacting role on its beauty. Although some now live in concrete homes, the majority still dress in their distinctive attire and hold on to their traditions, by leading a nomadic lifestyle in the summer, raising camels and goats and drinking their milk , as well as weaving tents from goat hair in which they dwell in during the summer.

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