Wadi Rum — Martian Desert Jordan
899.00 د.إ
Jordan’s Wadi Rum desert photographed at sunset from a dune crest — the red sandstone massifs and eroded rock pillars casting long shadows across the rose-coloured sand, a Bedouin camp visible in the valley between.
Description
Wadi Rum — the Valley of the Moon — in southern Jordan is a protected desert wilderness area of sandstone and granite mountains rising from a sand-filled valley floor. The characteristic red-rose colour of the Wadi Rum sand — produced by iron oxide in the rock — and the dramatic vertical faces of the sandstone jebels (mountains) create a landscape so reminiscent of Mars that NASA has used the location for rover training exercises and multiple films have used it to double for the Martian surface. This photograph was made from the summit of a dune overlooking one of the main open valleys at sunset, when the low-angle light catches every ripple in the sand surface and the rock faces take on the deep red tones that give the wadi its characteristic quality. The Bedouin camp in the valley — a cluster of traditional black goat-hair tents — provides scale and human presence.
