Wādī al-Dīsa

Site of a Nabataean/Roman provincial centre located in the northwest of Saudi Arabia. Since prehistoric times, it has benefited from favourable environmental conditions for human settlement thanks to the presence of numerous springs.

Located 80 km south of Tabūk, the wadi is surrounded by Precambrian red sandstone rocks. Together with the Wādī Qarāqir, it spans more than 27 km, between the eastern foothills of the Hijaz mountains and the basaltic Ḥarrat al-Raḥā.

Philby was the first traveller to mention the Nabataean necropolis of Jabal Rāyis, comprising an unfinished tomb facade (Fig. 1) and a dozen pit graves (Philby 1955: 128). The nearby site of al-Mushayrīf is a small Nabataean settlement (Fig. 2). Towards the eastern end of the wadi, the large still unstudied site of Maskūna counts many dwellings and burials likely to date from Nabataean and Byzantine periods (Fig. 3). It is noteworthy that the Nabataean sanctuary of Ruwāfa is located only 25 km north of the Wādī al-Dīsa.

Recent investigations unveiled the presence of numerous prehistoric structures (cairns, settlements, camps, etc…), rock art, as well as pre-Islamic and Islamic inscriptions, attesting to human occupation from Prehistory to the modern period.

Laurence Hapiot

References and suggested reading

• Philby, H.St. J.B. 1955. The Land of Midian. Middle East Journal 9(2): 117–129.
• Ingraham, M.L., T.D. Johnson, I. Shatla & B. Rihani 1981. Preliminary Report on a Reconnaissance Survey of the Northwestern Province. Atlal 5: 59–84.

_{Alternate spellings: Wadi al-Dissa, al-Dissa, Dissah}