In this desert in SAUDI ARABIA - only the dead remain | S8, EP41
Yee hooo Wow What is so incredible about this place is that there is nobody here It's unbelievable Ash Shamali, Saudi Arabia Season 8 - Eps. 41 Okay bye-bye Good morning Internet It is uh.. 08:30 in the morning and welcome back to the channel Welcome here in Saudi Arabia On a quiet morning in a deserted town This is a.. Al Shamli I think it's called I am on my way to AlUla In the last episode Wait, so first I tried to leave Hail and I went like here Then I had to turn back Second attempt I went around like this and then something like that And today I'm going to ride to AlUla which is about It's about, about here I think in this area So I stayed again in one of those uh, apartment hotels So that means no breakfast Ah here, can get some food Are there foul? Yes! Hi Hi Thank you Tea? Tea! That was delicious again Okay all fueled up Let's go I've hit the dirt See how this will go Hello A little bit of arabic Problem? Problem? No Photo? - Yeah Okay okay! Okay Goodbye! Look at this Oh, it is stunning here again! It's like every stretch of desert really looks different right? I felt like dark yellow sand dunes and then Wadis Palm Trees Sandstones. Volcanic rocks
And so far this track is really good I mean well, it's a little corrugated But it's really not that bad But I wonder for how long it's going to be so good so Let's see how far I can go Look at all these white camels Apparently, those are the most expensive ones And then they go further up in price when they have a nice face I've been told There's a whole herd of them there This is a very nice track Look how stunning it is here Amazing Wow It's a bit windy but Oh Look at where I'll be staying tonight This is so cool, look I have a seating area outside here And then this is my view Okay, so here I have a little seating area Here is my kitchen Oh, this is so cool And then here I will be sleeping And I can look outside At this amazing view I think this must be the shower Yes shower What an amazing place right? I'm so happy I found this place because the last couple of places where I stayed Like those apartment hotels Um, they were all so dark Like it really, every time it felt like I was in a bunker And I just really want to enjoy the outside a little bit and sit outside And not have to cover up all the time as well, of course I can't just like, walk on the streets with a t-shirt on So now I can actually just spend some time outside which is really nice the next morning... All right! Good morning It's 7:15 in the morning and today I am going to explore an amazing place around here Which is called Hegra but I first need to get fuel I was looking quite long to find this accommodation I checked a few other places before Oh, there's hot air balloons You probably can't see that So I was riding up and down and at some point I was like, this place is quite far out of town And I realized.. I should have gotten fuel Anyway, so I'm going to try and make it to the fuel station first But what a place right? Wow, in the morning light This is just.. Gorgeous, look at this Oh Wow, look at the sun coming up behind the rocks there Wow Almost all the rock formations here are sandstone Like these ones here And just the erosion patterns are just spectacular What a way to start today isn't it? Could this be any better There is the sun coming up Wow Yeah Thank you I have arrived at the siq and this was the most spiritual place of Hegra And it was was highly guarded so you had to be of very high standing to be allowed to pass here So what you see up there is ancient Arabic And they can tell because this writing didn't have the dots yet on the letters And then of course you also see some camels there But you can see how high up those inscriptions are I wonder how they.. got through that So all of these are shrines for the gods You see the main god was the eagle You see that on the top here but they were worshiping several gods See on this side is a shrine dedicated to three different gods Here was another one And this right here was a meeting hall Only for the elite of the civilization They would come here and have meetings Incredible How this was all carved out of the rocks right? So I made it to Hegra and this was an very important site for the Nabataean civilization They had their capital in Petra in Jordan about 500 kilometers to the northwest of here That's obviously a very famous place So this place was a very important trading place for them Uh for the trade of incense and they chose this place because it's surrounded by mountains which obviously offers a form of protection but there's also a lot of water in this valley So there is not much left of the original houses that they lived in I mean they moved here in 2,500 BC but what is left are the tombs So there are 130 tombs here in Hegra And you can tell by how the tomb looks like how wealthy that person was So there are very, very simple tombs which are basically just a hole in the rock And then the more exquisite and the more ornaments on the entrance of the tomb It will show you that that person had more money to get a good tomb And then most tombs will have an eagle on the top Because that's the main god of the Nabataeans And then on top of that you see a square And that square has the inscriptions of who is allowed to be buried there This is a very ancient writing but it can be deciphered so that's how they know now who was buried in each of the tombs Look at the sheer size of these tombs It is amazing And then most tombs will have like these stairways on the top And they're not quite sure what it means there are two theories Either it could mean that, that would be a stairway to heaven or just a decoration So the tombs at Petra in Jordan are even bigger than these on ones But what is so incredible about this place is that there is nobody here It's unbelievable in Petra I believe there the crowds are massive and here I'm just here With all these dunes It's incredible So I am now inside a tomb and what's so fascinating about this one Is that, it looks like it has a window there but that was the original door So they came in and then they dug down the tomb down below And then later this door was created So and this is where the dead would be So they would only create a new space once there was a new person Because it was all custom made so if they knew the size of the person They would custom build a place for this person So this is the biggest one there is It's the only one the only tomb that has four columns And this tomb is 22 meters tall Can you believe that See there's another eagle on the top And inscription The amount of work it must have been.. To create these tombs it's really fascinating and I believe that this one wasn't even finished yet The person who they made it for passed away already And when that happens the people that are building the tomb, they'll get worried that they might not get paid anymore Because the person passed away, so that's why they stopped So they will build this tomb like from top to bottom And that's how they know it wasn't finished yet because the bottom wasn't finished And also from the inside apparently it is empty All right, let's check out these ones because there is a very, very special one here So counting from the left there is one tomb, two, three and then there's a fourth one See, from here you can see it, it's that very small opening there And that is a very, very fascinating tomb So that tomb behind me only got discovered about 10 years ago when a big storm blew away the sand that was covering the entrance And when they went inside they discovered 80 bodies that were buried in that tomb That had been undisturbed for 2,000 years Amazing right? See so you can see it's only a small door But one of the people buried there was a lady, they call her Hinat And she was a very prominent figure in Nabataean culture So I'm not allowed to go inside these ones So here you can see really well that some people that didn't have so much money They had very simple tombs and then see this person probably had a little bit more funds So then they get a beautiful ornament So because of that incense trade that stretched all the way until the coast with Yemen The Nabataean culture got quite wealthy especially in this area So over time the tombs also got bigger and more ornamental and people just spend more money on the tombs But it's just so fascinating that all there's left now are the tombs of the dead So it truly is a city of the dead I just can't get enough of it, it's such a fascinating place Unreal, and especially in the morning light it's just so beautiful right? Wow! That was amazing! I absolutely love that What an incredible place right? I'm heading back to where I'm staying now To have a breakfast and then I'm going to explore town a little bit more This is such a lovely road This looks absolutely delicious And then they also gave me a bowl of fruit How nice is this right? Time to go explore Because there's already something really quite cool which is very near from here That I want to go check out first Wow Fantastic Oh, I can already see it right over there Spectacular, wow You are looking at a concert hall in the desert That is covered with 9,000 panels, mirror panels It is the largest mirrored building in the world Yah It just looks so unreal Except that it is real through there Look at that there is the entrance Amazing You didn't see that coming, did you now? Never seen anything like this before Frankie is dirty I would really like to find a place to wash Frankie today I think the old girl deserved that That was the mirrored concert hall Apparently some pretty big artists have performed here like Mariah Carey Woo, I found a nice track See if I can get in that canyon there a little bit And now I'm obviously riding without luggage which is 10 times easier No weight on the back The colors are beautiful right? Like the red and yellow and green Oplah, hee hee Wow I just had to stop and pause here for a second To just look around It is so beautiful everywhere I am absolutely loving this And.. riding without luggage in sand so much better
So much better Ah, on my left here, you can't really see it But behind here they're growing palm trees Welcome to Saudi Arabia! Thank you so much You are welcome! One more? Thank you, one is enough! Welcome to Saudi Arabia You are welcome, where are you from? Holland Nice to meet you! Is it very safe.. to to travel? Yeah Saudi Arabia.. very safe -Safe, very safe But you are from Riyadh then We are from Riyadh, yes Me and him are from Riyadh But currently, we are staying here This place is.. Thank you.. thank you Goodbye Goodbye! Look there That's elephant rock Do you see the elephant yet? Look, looks like an elephant right? That's really cool I am in AlUla With an amazing backdrop, oh This is the old town Can only go walking So I am just going to walk around AlUla for a little bit Explore it. The old town an.. Where I am now? This is another really cool city to walk around Look at this I just love all the doors you know how they look like Look at this street How cool is this right? It's also a lot cooler when you walk here because it's covered Before I was just walking in the burning sun This is a lot more pleasant I think I go here Or in here Look they decorated the ceiling here with all these woven baskets So now I'm kind of outside again, see Maybe I can climb that See, here you have a quite a nice view over old AlUla So I've been walking in this area where they restored the roofs But all of that hasn't been restored, it's all original Goodbye! Thank you I have a clean Frankie That was about time So I am going to make my way back to my caravan That was an awesome day I really enjoy this So I'm going to end this video now That was it for today I really hope you like this video too If you did please give me a big thumbs up Subscribe down below And then I'll see you in the next video
2025-03-03 14:28
