Continuing w/ shots from my short but magically warm adventures within the endless territories of Wadi Rum, we came across this amazing area where the sand switched from crimson red to a beautiful yellow-ish orange... (i guess 'burnt ochre' would be rather apropos were i to name a well known color).
this wonderful splay of granite sits atop a giant crest of sand -- 2 feet to the right the edge drops away smoothly and steeply to a vast and flat valley floor pocked with beautifully jagged islands of rock. and over the surface of this wondrous expanse of ochre are the numerous and captivating rings of 4x4 jeep tracks, tracing concentric and overlapping patterns in the sand! it brought to mind the wonders of the modern Japanese 'Rock Garden' -- the wonderfully clean lines of raked sand surrounding aesthetically placed islands of rock -- except on a humungous and natural scale! hmm... a rock garden for God you ask? well, it certainly seemed plausible! ;)
i will have to dig around and see if i have any decent pictures of this valley to post at some later point. but it was just amazing to see the ironic presence of man in these seemingly inhospitable lands become in fact a sort of man-made 'beauty' -- and a wonderful augmentation to this vast, never ending, natural and pristine desert-scape. it was a glorious feeling!
in the distance on the dusty horizon, you can see a type of rock structure that resembles the original '7 Pillars of Wisdom'... a rock of similar size and shape that eventual became the title of TE Lawrence's book detailing his own infamous adventures and exploits as 'Lawrence of Arabia' at the turn of the century. just below the rocky structure, in clusters of white tents, specialized Bedouin camps raise & train robust horses -- a type of 'Black Stallion', if you will. we could hear the very distant men yelling excitedly at times when the light wind carried their cries over the sands in our direction... there seemed to be a good deal of commotion and i forlornly wished i had brought binoculars with me... quel dommage! :(
all work protected by Creative Commons
Canon EOS REBEL XT
1/100 second
F/5.6
ISO 100
18 mm