Taymā'

Tayma is an ancient oasis between the Hejaz mountains and the western edge of the Great Nafud. Palm gardens grow where wells reach groundwater beneath the desert; at their centre lies the great well of Hadaj. The oasis stood on caravan routes linking Arabia with the Levant and Mesopotamia, and its broad enclosing wall testifies to the labour invested in protecting settlement and cultivation. A separate retaining wall helped keep salt from the cultivated land beside an old lake bed.

Tayma's history reaches far beyond the Islamic centuries. In the sixth century before Christ the Babylonian king Nabonidus made the oasis his residence for roughly ten years. Ancient inscriptions and remains record contacts with lands beyond Arabia, while occupation continued into the Islamic period. The geographer al-Muqaddasi described its water supply and fine dates, and the old town between the ancient settlement and palm groves took shape in the Middle Ages. Wells and gardens sustained the oasis as a place of habitation and a halt for travellers crossing the arid northwest.