Wadi Rum is in Jordan. This protected desert wilderness in southern Jordan is famous for sandstone mountains, granite formations, narrow valleys, and broad red-sand plains.
The name Wadi Rum is often translated as “Valley of the Moon.” Human presence in the area stretches back thousands of years, and its rock surfaces preserve inscriptions and petroglyphs made by earlier peoples.
Wadi Rum is strongly associated with T. E. Lawrence, the British officer who operated in the region during the Arab Revolt of 1917–1918. The landscape also appeared in several films, helping make it internationally recognizable.
Wadi Rum is not the same place as Petra, Jordan’s famous rock-cut ancient city. Petra lies farther north and is an archaeological city of the Nabataeans, while Wadi Rum is primarily a vast desert landscape and protected area.