Ashraf AboArafe
Hail region, northern Saudi Arabia, is fully prepared to receive international rally enthusiasts on January 2, with the third consecutive Saudi edition of Dakar 2022, which will run until January 14.
Dakar 2022 will attract about 650 participants from 70 countries, in which 430 vehicles are participating in various race categories, and 148 other vehicles are participating in (Dakar Classic) category. The rally will start from Hail desert, where drivers and vehicles will challenge their capacities for 8,375 km which Includes 4,258 km of special stages subject to timing. They will continue their journey to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, before returning to the shores of the Red Sea in Jeddah on January 14.
Hail, which ended in mid-December the 17th edition of the Hail International Rally, is well-known by its unique winter atmosphere and beautiful nature. It is surrounded by mountains from the east, west and north, as well as a variety of antiquities and Thamudic inscriptions. On top of that is archaeological site of Jubbah which is the listed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and it was included in the “Events and Seasons Calendar” by “Visit Saudi” program.
Visitors to the Jubbah site in Hail region, which is famous for its rock art, can see the inscriptions and carved symbols in Umm Sinman Mountains, which date back to about ten thousand years, and photograph the walls of the surrounding rocks with their beautiful inscriptions of humans with animals such as deer, cattle, ostriches, lions, horses, as well as prehistoric tools.
