My name is Ikbal, and this is the highly detailed story of an absolutely incredible, action-packed day trip meticulously organized by the Arabian Routes travel group to Al-Baha, a deeply historical, stunningly green mountain region located over 400 kilometers away from the busy coastal city of Jeddah.
🚌 The Journey Begins
Exactly at 6:45 AM, three massive tour buses safely carrying nearly 150 eager, excited passengers officially departed from the popular Rock Garden meeting point located near Sharafiyah. I was happily seated on Bus No. 2, which was highly energetically hosted by the famous, entertaining local food vlogger, MC Manaf. The incredibly long journey officially began with the organizers kindly handing out a highly thoughtful welcome kit containing sweet cake, crunchy almonds, and raisins. Manaf expertly kicked off the early morning with an incredibly engaging, highly fun mix of lively speeches, traditional songs, engaging storytelling, and even some dancing in the aisles to quickly wake everyone up!
ISHABIL TRIP AT A GLANCE
A Relaxing Morning Stop at Al Lith
Right around 10:00 AM, our caravan safely stopped for a hearty breakfast at a highly beautiful, well-maintained public park situated very near the calm seashore in Al Lith. We happily spent a full hour there, stretching our cramped legs, heavily enjoying our packed meals, properly using the restroom facilities, and taking dozens of highly scenic photos of the beautiful blue sea.
Once safely back on the moving road, MC Manaf perfectly kept the crowd's energy highly elevated with engaging quizzes and humorous, tricky questions, generously distributing sweet chocolates as fun prizes for correct answers. Outside the large bus windows, the passing scenery rapidly shifted between the highly arid, dry desert, sudden thick patches of unexpected greenery, and massive, wandering herds of wild camels. Since it was officially Friday, we respectfully stopped at a large local mosque for Jumu'ah (the mandatory Friday congregation prayer) before eagerly continuing our long journey.
We eventually turned completely off the main coastal Jizan highway near Al Muzaylif and directly took the winding road heading straight toward the high peaks of Al-Baha. Exactly as we passed through the town of Al Makwah, the surrounding landscape suddenly and dramatically turned incredibly lush, immediately offering highly beautiful, vibrant green mountain views—a highly welcome, deeply refreshing sight for the tired eyes and the weary soul. We were now actively and steadily climbing higher, rapidly ascending far from sea level.
🏰 The Incredible Marble Village of Dhee Ayn
Our winding mountain journey soon successfully brought us directly to the incredible, highly ancient Marble Village, locally known as Dhee Ayn.
Perfectly located exactly about 20 kilometers from Al Makwah, sitting right at the very foot of the massive mountain pass, this highly spectacular, multi-story stone structure is completely, clearly visible from the main paved road, perched dramatically high on a white rocky hill. We safely parked the massive buses at the bottom of the valley and eagerly gathered closely together for a highly crucial, deeply educational historical briefing.
A Deep Dive into Ancient History
Right before actively exploring the ancient ruins, we were highly privileged to be treated to a deeply detailed, highly fascinating historical talk directly by Hassan Cheruppa, a highly renowned, respected historian and senior journalist based in Jeddah. He brilliantly enlightened us all about this absolutely amazing heritage site:
- Masterful Architecture: The perfectly preserved, 400-year-old village is incredibly constructed entirely from raw, heavy stone and sturdy local wood built directly on top of a massive, solid white marble hill. The ancient building technique used here is completely unique and highly advanced for its time: massive flat stones are perfectly, precisely stacked and tightly interlocked completely without the use of cement mortar, successfully forming incredibly durable buildings that remarkably range from two to seven full stories high!
- A History of Defiance: Originally established way back in the historic 10th Hijri century, the ancient village was proudly home to the fierce, highly independent Zahrani and Ghamdi tribes. It actively and bravely witnessed countless bloody battles long before the official, modern unification of Saudi Arabia under King Abdulaziz Al Saud. Most notably, the massive, highly feared Ottoman Turkish army, which had successfully and brutally conquered much of the known world, completely failed to ever subdue the fierce defenders of Dhee Ayn, ultimately suffering extremely heavy, devastating casualties in the rocky valley. The old cemetery exactly where their fallen soldiers were buried (locally known today as The Cemetery of the Turks) can absolutely still be seen preserved in a quiet section of the village.
- Modern Revitalization: The modern Saudi Tourism Authority has highly generously and smartly invested a massive 16 million Saudi riyals into the careful, historically accurate reconstruction of the village, highly successfully turning the ancient ruins into a thriving, highly educational heritage and tourism center for global visitors.
Exploring the Lush, Hidden Oasis
The highly unique village is poetically named after 'Dhee Ayn' (literally meaning 'The Eye'), perfectly describing the highly active, completely natural freshwater spring that flows continuously and heavily through the incredibly dense, tropical trees located exactly at the foot of the massive marble hill.
We happily and extensively explored the incredibly dark, ancient stone homes and eagerly took numerous, highly memorable photos. The incredibly large, highly cultivated green garden situated deep in the lower valley was a massive, unexpected attraction, densely filled to the brim with highly productive, swaying banana trees, sweet-smelling basil bushes, highly fragrant lemon groves, and towering date palm trees. The sweeping, panoramic view looking directly down from the high village windows above this highly vibrant, incredibly green garden was absolutely, undeniably superb. We then excitedly and carefully followed the rapid, clear water stream, which beautifully created highly scenic, small cascading waterfalls cutting completely through the thick greenery, hiking right up to its very rocky source. The incredibly lush, highly tropical vegetation and the constant, highly soothing sound of the rapidly flowing water genuinely and deeply gave us all a strong, highly nostalgic feeling of being magically transported completely back to the rainy, green hills of Kerala, India. After quietly and respectfully visiting the completely restored, ancient stone mosque, we happily returned to the massive bus parking area for a highly anticipated, hearty lunch.
💡 Ishabil Fact
- Defeating an Empire: The incredibly massive, highly equipped Ottoman Turkish army suffered a massive, completely devastating defeat directly trying to aggressively conquer Dhee Ayn. The old, marked "Cemetery of the Turks" can absolutely still be seen within the village today!
- An Ancient Engineering Marvel: The incredibly durable, 400-year-old Marble Village is magically built by highly precisely stacking flat stones completely without any mortar, miraculously creating highly stable buildings up to seven stories high securely on a white marble hill!
- The Winding Tunnels Road: The absolutely miraculous Aqabat Al-Baha (Al-Baha Pass) is a highly terrifying, steep 25-kilometer stretch containing exactly more than 20 carved tunnels, rapidly ascending straight up to nearly 8,000 feet above sea level.
⭐ Ishabil Tips
- Group Travel is Absolutely Key: For a massive, remote destination located well over 400 kilometers away like Al-Baha, highly consider joining an organized, professional group trip (exactly like Arabian Routes). It entirely takes the massive stress directly out of the long driving and planning a heavily packed, exhausting single-day itinerary.
- Always Follow the Spring: When physically exploring Dhee Ayn, absolutely do not just stay inside the stone buildings! Make sure to physically walk completely through the lush, highly green valley gardens of dense banana and tall palm trees to actively trace the beautiful natural spring exactly back to its rocky source.
- Plan the High Zip Line Approach: If you really, badly want to physically ride the absolutely incredible, terrifying 957-meter zip line high up at Raghadan Forest Park, make absolutely sure to clearly figure out your physical transport directly to the high mountaintop starting station well beforehand, as physically walking up the mountain is incredibly, brutally difficult!
🎉 Ishabil Fun
- Non-Stop Bus Ride Entertainment: Thoroughly enjoying a highly lively, incredibly loud morning bus ride hosted directly by MC Manaf, fully complete with sweet cake, highly competitive quizzes, great storytelling, and free chocolates to perfectly keep absolutely everyone highly energized!
- The Sudden, Magical Oasis: Truly experiencing the highly beautiful, completely unexpected shock of simply watching the incredibly arid, dry desert and slow camel herds very suddenly transform exactly into the highly lush, incredibly cool, and very green mountains located near Al Makwah.
- A Highly Sweet Send-Off: Happily snacking on incredibly delicious, highly sweet, locally grown Al-Baha fresh figs that were generously handed out directly as a sweet parting treat on the dark bus, exactly while actively catching bright, colorful glimpses of the massive Saudi National Day fireworks completely lighting up the dark night sky!
We thoroughly enjoyed a highly delicious, spicy traditional biriyani meal, after which we excitedly visited a very small, highly modern art gallery that perfectly showcased the deep history, old vintage photos, and highly modern tourist information entirely about Al-Baha and the Marble Village presented in a very attractive, highly contemporary visual style.
🧗 The Terrifying Aqabat Al-Baha: The Tunnels Road
We quickly and safely boarded the massive tour bus again, and the final, highly intimidating journey straight up to Al-Baha officially began on a winding mountain road that can only be accurately described as an absolute engineering miracle: the highly famous Aqabat Al-Baha (Al-Baha Pass).
This highly treacherous, incredibly steep 25-kilometer stretch boldly contains more than 20 dark, carved tunnels and numerous, highly elevated concrete bridges, instantly offering incredibly dizzying, highly terrifying views dropping straight down from various high points along the cliff edge. It is famously a highly favorite, highly challenging path specifically for extreme adventure cyclists. After nervously and slowly navigating this absolutely breathtaking, highly scary mountain pass, we suddenly found ourselves sitting at an incredibly dizzying height of nearly 8,000 feet directly above sea level! It was truly, undeniably astounding to suddenly realize exactly how we had physically reached such a massive, freezing altitude so incredibly quickly, directly from the flat, hot coastline exactly where we had casually eaten our breakfast!
🌳 A Cool Sunset at Raghadan Forest Park
Upon finally and safely reaching the high city of Al-Baha, the mountain city was highly unexpectedly completely bustling with heavy, standstill traffic entirely due to the massive Saudi National Day celebrations, with the wide city roads completely filled to the brim with loud, cheering, flag-waving local vehicles.
Right around 5:00 PM, we thankfully reached our highly anticipated, highly relaxing next destination: Raghadan Forest Park. Massively spread out over an incredible 600,000 square meters on top of the mountain, a very large, deeply shaded part of the entire park is a highly well-maintained, thickly planted pine forest. It also prominently features incredibly beautifully designed, highly colorful flower gardens, massive, safe children's play areas, and several highly intense adventure activities, prominently including a massive, terrifying zip line crossing directly over the valley.
We excitedly watched the highly brave riders literally flying rapidly past us on the massive zip line—which is perfectly designed to the absolute highest international engineering safety standards, safely covering a massive, terrifying length of 957 meters with a very steep 12% downward slope, seamlessly allowing riders to hit incredibly fast, heart-pounding speeds directly up to 45 km/h over the void! Although we desperately, badly wanted to ride it ourselves, physically getting up to the extremely high mountaintop starting station was incredibly difficult and time-consuming, so we unfortunately, highly reluctantly gave up the attempt.
The massive, beautiful park also happily offered various highly unique, highly fun transport vehicles exactly shaped like classic, old vintage cars for slowly touring around the paths. The highly unique, beautiful architectural design of the local park mosque instantly caught my eye, looking exactly, bizarrely like a classic, very old European-style colonial bungalow. The massive park was incredibly, highly meticulously designed with highly clean, smooth paved walkways, several massive artificial waterfalls brightly lit up very attractively at night, and highly beautifully manicured green lawns completely filled with bright flowers and small wooden walking bridges.
We happily took many, many highly scenic group photos, deeply enjoyed the various fun children's programs and loud music officially organized directly for the Saudi National Day, and slowly returned to the warm bus around 8:00 PM, completely freezing in the mountain air!
🌙 The Long, Dark Night Drive Home
Exactly as the massive bus finally departed the cold mountaintop, absolutely everyone on board was generously handed some of the incredibly highly delicious, highly sweet, locally grown Al-Baha fresh figs directly as a highly sweet, thoughtful farewell treat. While slowly, carefully navigating the heavy, congested holiday city traffic and highly nervously descending the terrifying, steep mountain pass in the pitch dark, we excitedly caught several highly bright, completely spectacular glimpses of the massive Saudi National Day fireworks entirely lighting up the sky over the city. We finally stopped for a very late, highly satisfying hot dinner near a massive, glowing mosque complex right after finally, safely descending the dangerous mountain pass.
After driving highly exhausted for many hundreds of dark, boring kilometers, the massive tour bus finally reached our home city of Jeddah past 3:00 AM. We completely, heavily thanked the incredibly hardworking Arabian Routes organizers for an absolutely flawless, completely unforgettable trip—a highly perfect, highly dense blend of deep ancient history, absolutely breathtaking, terrifying mountain landscapes, and highly fantastic, warm group camaraderie.
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