Old Houses, Najran. December 2016
[from FB post: December 10, 2016]
"Into the war zone"
I think you noticed a week back perhaps I posted photos from Najran, Saudi Arabia. Here is my account of travelling into Saudi Arabia's war zone (the front line in fact)
The drive from Abha (also officially in the war zone) was at first along the edge of the Hejaz Escarpment which means travelling through some hilly, at times mountainous, terrain. There are small cities and towns along the way (I guess also in the war zone). What I noticed mostly was the change in traditional architecture from a mix of mud and stone to only mud. It was also a lovely sunny day which made for lovely driving.
We (my Saudi friend and I) passed through two military check points. They looked at our IDs and we passed without comment. No doubt because it was quite relaxed and we didn't look suspicious, but also because my ID says "American" and the soldiers would rather have taken a bullet than try to speak English. After slowly dropping down off our high plateau and feeling my ears pop, we came into the Najran Valley.
Najran has been occupied for millenia. It has Jewish, Christian, and Muslim history that no one in the West has ever learned about. That was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit. A river spills out of the Hejaz mountains along the Yemen/Saudi border into a V-shaped valley and creates a fertile plain. After Najran are the huge sand dunes of the Empty Quarter. So depending which way you are travelling, Najran is either the first or last civilization you might see for quite some time.
The city was quiet because it was the morning before the Friday prayers. We visited some old houses and I took a lot of photos. The style of houses has probably not changed for centuries or more. Most Saudis have given up on their traditional homes and now live in large cement block homes behind high walls. The traditional houses are mostly left in ruin and you can walk around them quite freely.
At the first group of houses, some men asked us what we were doing, but I think it was more out of curiosity and to give a gentle reminder to my Saudi friend that Friday prayers were imminent. At the second group of houses, a young man came out and walked around with us. He was just amazed that a foreigner showed up out of thin air to photograph a bunch of old houses. We saw the blast mark on one garage door of a mortar. This was the first indication that really this was a war zone. Apparently, it had happened in the middle of the night a few weeks before. The kid was nonplussed. No one got hurt, but it had been a shock.
My Saudi friend and I looked at each other and laughed nervously.... apparently mortars landed sporadically and unpredictably. You can't really aim a mortar very well and also, unlike scud missiles, you cannot stop them.
So after Friday prayer we had traditional food in a crowded restaurant near the central mosque and market in the old part of town. The hygiene standard was dubious and I was more worried at that point about diarrhea than mortars.
The "thing to see" in Najran is Al Okhdod, the ancient city of the Himyarites. It is a huge, fenced off archeological site that is even closer to the Yemeni border than the city proper. Here we had our ONLY negative experience of the trip. The man working the gate didn't want to let us in because I was American. My friend was quite insistent that we had driven far and that this was the highlight of the tour for me. The man finally called his boss who showed up after about 10 minutes. That guy roundly scolded my friend for bringing an American into a war zone and "such a dangerous place". We should have had police clearance and a note from my embassy (!!!!) At least he said we could have a quick tour but only if the first man accompanied us. So we literally ran through the ruins and the man explained things in Arabic so quickly, my Saudi friend could barely interpret for me. To be honest, there isn't a whole lot to see as the ruins are mostly just foundations. There are a few rocks with carvings on them.
So we left the danger zone of Okhdod leaving a group of Pakistanis to wander the site unescorted. Assumedly, if they were killed in a mortar attack the gatekeeper would not get in as much trouble as he would had it been an American.
To be honest, we did hear some "boom boom" in the mountains just beyond town (Yemen). Otherwise, Najran carried on life as normal and no one seemed outwardly concerned at living just a few miles from a war.
The drive back was into the blinding, setting desert sun (another low point of the trip) and we reached Abha in the dark.
So this was my one and only trip to an active war zone. I share this just because I am not a journalist and I am just an average guy. This is what I saw - I did not exaggerate nor did I omit anything noteworthy.
Thank you for reading this all the way through.
The trip to Najran remains a highlight of my time spent in Saudi Arabia. I could not have done it without the great spirit of adventure of my ex-student, AQ. I also thank Georgetown "Ling Lang" friend, SF, for continually pushing me to write everything down. I will write more about the general history of Najran (fascinating) and the legend of "the People of the Ditch" (Al Okhdod) in the future, "Inshallah".