Travel to the sites

Travel to the Discovery Sites
____________________________

Noah's Ark Visit

To visit the Noah's ark site, contact us for info to hire the local guide who can
meet you at the nearest airport, take you to your hotel, he will pay for the hotel,
drive you to the ark and the village of eight where the anchor stones are located,
and also visit Noah's house area with the altar on the hill above. Price for three
days is $600.00.

Saudi Arabia visit

Here is a tour company to sign up with to visit the area: https://livingpassages.com/tour/saudi-arabia-2021-ryan-mauro/

Best option, travel there on your own with friends:

The following info is from how I did the travel. You can travel at your own discretion and risk

Purchase your visa online here: https://www.visitsaudi.com/en/about-evisa.html Cost is around $125.00.
For the visa application you will need a headshot photo that is 100kb x 100kb or less in size.

I tried to get a 4 x 4 rental reserved. Avis allows you to reserve a car without paying, but when we went to the Holiday Inn and spoke with them, they had rented out all the cars and no car was reserved for us. In the lobby of Holiday Inn is the office for Lumi Rental Company, but they do not open until 11:00 am. The airport has Lumi and other companies you can rent from. You need a 4x4 to go out to the split rock. For 4 days and the 1400 miles I drove, it ended up costing $900.00. So you need 3 or 4 people to be in on the rental. Driving on your own and having control of where you are going and what you are doing is a great benefit.

This is where I stayed: : Hilton Garden Inn, 7701 Prince Sultan Rd Al Salam Area, Tabuk, 47311-3655, Saudi ArabiaTEL: +966-144-226125

Holiday Inn is a good option for staying in Tabuk. At Haql there is a Hayat hotel where you can stay which is closer to the split rock, crossing beach, Elim, Al Bad, etc. It is almost two hours to drive from Tabuk to Mount Sinai.

I flew into the country via another city, but you need to have Tabuk as your final destination in your flights. Tabuk is TUU airport when you do a flight search.

Google Maps worked well with my cell phone. I bought an SD card from Amazon that had the Saudi maps on it and it worked well. Middle East GPS Map. Like this: https://www.amazon.com/Middle-East-2020-Garmin-Devices/dp/B0838T6YC4/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=garmin+map+for+saudi+arabia&qid=1602339891&sr=8-9

GPS Coordinates for Mt. Sinai:

I took hwy 80 west out of town, go through checkpoint I kept going, then right after that is a four lane 8784 highway take that west, then I saw an exit, turning right at 28 18 16.79N 35 48 51.59E then take the first hardtop on the left. Go to a village at 28 24 49.59N 35 32 26.61E and the hardtop ends, but the same road continues as sand. Keep going on the sand road North 14 miles and you will see the golden calf altar on your right. In November 2022 the government was working on paving the road all the way to Mount Sinai.

Golden Calf Altar: 28 34’ 53.35”N 35 23 46.61E This is to the right as you enter the area from the South. Notice sandy road path.

L Shaped Altar: 28 35 3.87N, 35 22 43.3E This is at the very base of the mountain.

Driving toward the blackened peak along the fence row, I saw the large rock with drawings or apis bulls and people on the left.

Technically it is illegal to climb the mountain. Locals will be watching you and will demand money when you return to your car.

GPS Coordinates for Split Rock:

Along highway 55 I turned off hard top road at this point: 28 42’ 55.92”N 35 06’ 17.82”E I saw a white mosque here. I drove around it and headed east. The split rock is at this point: 28 43’ 35.44N 35 14’ 10.46E This is nine miles off the road. I wrote down some gps points along the way. Best to enter the split rock area 500 yards North of the split rock itself, as there is a large rocky hill directly in front of you as you are entering the area. The government seems to be constructing a paved road out to the rock. We saw this November 2022.

Elim Oasis GPS

28 34 10.18N 34 49 59.79E

3 mile walk East in from Gulf Aqaba at Wadi Tayeb Esam Oasis above: 28 33 35.36N 34 48 04.31E Park here and walk East through the wadi. The road along the gulf ends at this point, so I had to drive to this area from the South, coming up from the Maqna Oasis from the South.

Caves of Jethro

I went to Al Bad and saw the visitors center on the left as I was going North in town: 28 29 08.55N 35 00 59.34E

Well of Moses

On the other side of Al Bad: 28 29 08.55N 35 00 59.34E

Beach at Crossing Site

I had to enter this from Haql or from the North because the road is closed down at the south. I took the coastal two lane road down from Haql to this point: GPS is 29 01 39.22N 34 50 50.12E

I found it easy to drive to these places. Split rock being the most tricky, but my gps quit working, so that did not help!

Laws in Saudi: https://www.insider.com/saudi-arabia-laws-tourists-pitfalls-2019-10#entering-mecca-and-medinah-as-a-non-muslim-is-forbidden-20

Power outlets used in Saudi Arabia: https://www.power-plugs-sockets.com/saudi-arabia/