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Jabal Ikmah is a sandstone mountain north of AlUla. Its walls bear hundreds of carved inscriptions and drawings.
According to Saudipedia, there are more than 300 inscriptions, from the second half of the 1st millennium BC. The same page elsewhere speaks of more than 500 inscriptions and carvings from the Dadanite and Lihyanite periods. The figures vary depending on how they are counted.
The texts describe the life of the time: rites, offerings, names of people. The drawings show animals, musical instruments and daily life (experiencealula.com).
These inscriptions help researchers follow how the scripts and languages of the region developed, before classical Arabic.
On 24 May 2023, the Royal Commission for AlUla announced the inscription of Jabal Ikmah on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register (Saudipedia).
Visiting
According to experiencealula.com, the visit is made on an organized tour, together with Dadan. Private cars are not allowed. Prices and opening hours: to be checked on experiencealula.com.What is certain and what is not
- Certain: hundreds of inscriptions, mostly Dadanitic, from the 1st millennium BC.
- Certain: inscription on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2023.
- Uncertain: the exact number of inscriptions (more than 300 or more than 500 depending on the text).
Sources
1. Saudipedia, Jabal Ikmah. https://saudipedia.com/en/jabal-ikmah
2. Experience AlUla (RCU), Jabal Ikmah. https://www.experiencealula.com/en/places-to-go/jabal-ikmah
3. Arab News, “ThePlace: Jabal Ikmah, the open library”, 2021. https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1963511