Al-Faw

On our trip to Saudia Arabia we tried to visit Al-Faw in October 24 and did not succeed. The site is double fenced with the standard yellow ca. 3m fence with barb wire on top, the Saudis use to protect their cultural sites. The outer fence is is the problem. It’s minimum 200m from the site, which make it impossible to get to the core zone or even see more than a few walls. The building closest to the main street, about 200m from the fence, is a Ranger Station. Around 10 Ranger cars were parked there, so we tried our luck and went in. The ranger was very friendly, but would not let us pass even the outer fence under any circumstances. There are some info panels inside the station, but it’s clearly no visitor center.

We have seen a few places the Saudis have ready for visitors and Al-Faw is far away from that. I am sure there will be a visitor center, parking lot and access road to the site. None of these exist in 2024. The ranger was talking about “maybe” 2025, but I don’t think this is realistic. I would rather bet on 2030.

There is currently no legal or semi legal way to get to the core zone. As much as it hurt, we could not tick this site off (and neither should anybody else). I will try again, when the site officially opens. I will obviously also not rate it, as …

I gave one star, because the artefacts from al-Faw in the National Museum in Riyadh are really impressive, so MAYBE the site also has some value. But as for now -DO NOT GO THERE. Do not even try. My travel mates almost punched me there, but they were gentlemen. So how we did not visit al-Faw? During our Sausi trip, we saw the sculptures in the museum, which really looked interesting, and even some reconstructed parts of a shrine - all from al-Faw. I remembered the name from the tentative list. So I suggested to my friends, to take the longer road from Abha - so that we could stop at al-Faw and Himá. The road was loooooong. I tried to contact the saudi authorities to give some hint how to visit al-Faw, but they did not answer. We were not discouraged, as - just a month after Saudi Arabia opened up for tourism - a lot of sites were formally closed, but absolutely accessible. We crawled into Jubba under the fence, visited Turaif quarter through a back door left unintentionally open, and Dhee Ain without any restrictions. So why not to try al-Faw too? We tried to call the caretaker when we were there, but - surprise, surprise - did not answer the phone. Then we tried to look for holes on or under the fence. One looked good enough to send in our smallest thinest friend. She sneaked in - with the promise, that if she finds anything …

This non-review from my misadventures is to point out a few things. During my visit in December 2018 I had tried to visit Al-Faw (Faw/Fao however you want to romanize it) to no avail. First off it's far out near the Empty Quarter but the now-inscribed rock art at Ḥimā made me drive the outer loop anyway. There is also a wildlife sanctuary that you cannot enter beyond it that might one day be a WHS.

As you drive along the 177 there is a clear sign for the archaeological site as if it was a tourist attraction. You can see it in my picture. Once you drive off the road here though, it is suddenly all fenced off - see the second sign, with no visit center, no parking - well you can park ANYWHERE in the desert I suppose, lots of broken tires and an interesting sign to call if one needs information. Well I called and nobody answered and I kinda doubt I would have come far this way. I believe it's the caretaker's phone number who lives in the area - anyway it wasn't of much use. I took some pictures but one is just too far away to see anything - maybe flying a drone over would be the way to go to at least something - but be aware it's still quite ways off from the "parking lot" so your drone needs to have decent range so unless you have a high-end model …