4Tayma is situated 230 kilometers northwest of Alula and 260 kilometers southwest of the city of Tabuk. A great Babylonian monarch was lured to Tayma, a small town in the Tabuk region with 36,000 residents, by its wealth in ancient times. Tayma has a rich history. Tayma was a significant oasis for caravans traveling the ancient frankincense route because of its location on the edge of the Nafud desert, which was combined with an abundance of water resources and farming.
One of the largest ancient walls in the Arabian Peninsula, the wall of Tayma's city is 15 km long. The wall may have been constructed in the middle of the third millennium BC when the city was flourishing.
This wall explains to us the significance of this city that was occupied in antiquity, as the city was situated on the route connecting the Mesopotamian Valley and Syria; in other words, in the region that witnessed the Assyrian military forces invading Syria and the plots of the king of Damascus and his partners against the Assyrians, a battle that we know from several Assyrian texts and continued in some capacity during the era of the modern Babylonian state.
The Tayma Wall, also known as the great wall of Tayma, is an important boundary in terms of archaeology. It is among the most well-known tourist destinations in the area. The ancient Tayma settlement is encircled by the wall on its western, southern, and eastern sides. The wall, erected from mud and brick in the sixth century BC, is more than 10 kilometers long, rises more than ten meters, and has a thickness of up to two meters. It served to keep the city safe from invading forces from outside. The wall comprises five gates, along with several buildings and command posts.
Duration RequiredTayma, Saudi Arabia
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