Edge of the World

September 23rd is the national day of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.. on the same day this year, we were at Edge of the World. (click on the images for fullview)
Aman, Steve, Mohamed and myself made the move at 7am to a place some of us researched on the Web about 180km north-east of Riyadh called the Edge of the World. Not too much information can be found on the web, but the few photos posted were stunning, I myself couldn't imagine a place like this exists in Saudi.

I did not have my camera with me in that trip, luckily though Aman had his 450D.

A photo from the rear window of our 4x4 showing the long way we crossed, before stepping off road..
We passed by some creepy deserted places and villages..
and ruins..
the GPS map did not cover that area, Aman had the coordinates of the place but that wasn't enough..
after asking many of the locals in the areas nearby about the place, we almost lost hope as no one had a clue what we were talking about. some online articles on the place put some directions on how to get to the Edge but that wasn't helpful either.. another rear window shot as we went off road into the wild..
desert life..


we stopped for some rest, Steve tempted to make a jump.
our sweet sweet powerful ride..

Steve made it!

weird to see such signs in the middle of no where..
We drove for hours in the desert, not much of luck.. we barely passed by any signs of life.. on the contrary, we came across this..

oh! someone was here before us..

more dead goats, I took some good portraits that are not good art for weak hearts, so I will keep them away from the blog.
we didn't do it..
this image can make a cool desktop wallpaper.. I have to admit it was a bit creepy to step out of the car and get close to them.. the silence was so damn creepy, I couldn't hear anything but our car's engine and the wind.
we almost lost hope locating the Edge, until we saw three 4x4 cars driving towards us..hope! We thought they were on the way back from the Edge, but they were actually heading to the Edge.. nice, the Edge was behind us.
After nearly 45minutes of driving between the hills following tracks of other cars been to the Edge before us.. we stopped.. and there we were, at the Edge of the World..
the following two images clearly show why one should stop where the tracks stop..
we were literally at a cliff's edge..
a view of the path we crossed to the Edge..
the view was heavenly.. thousands of feet below sea level were just meters away from us. The sun was strong, a polarizing filter would have made these photos turn magical..


trying to convince Aman to come over..
fullview is a must for the following photo, note the people at the edge of the cliff to have an idea about perspectives..


the view was awesome.. makes one feel like really being at Edge of the World..
Steve and Mo..
I am sure we would do it again.. sitting on that edge was great, I will make sure I am better prepared the next time though..
on the way back.. before losing most of my energy that day on the way back..
we left after spending around an hour at the Edge.. Steve trying to get this car to work
giving up and preferring the sweet ride..

the place is highly recommended to check out.. not being very popular has its pros of not becoming another human circus. this is how the Edge of the World looks like on google maps: [link]