Al Hada Mountain

The majestic Al Hada Mountain, located high above the valley that leads to the holy city of Makkah, is home to breathtaking natural views, stunning rose fields, and baboons. Getting here, at 2,000 meters above sea level, feels like a pilgrimage in and of itself. Old camel caravan roads zig-zag down the mountain, representing the hairpin route traders took to Makkah and further to the Jeddah coast.

Highlights

• At the top of the Al Hada Road, near Taif, baboons run around as local families spread down rugs, cups, and pots on the rough ground. They can drink coffee and spiced tea while looking across layers of mountains that the twilight glow casts in various blue-grey colors.
• While most of Saudi Arabia swelters in the summer, the hilly Taif region remains comparatively cool, with fertile soil that produces some of the country's greatest apricots, figs, peaches, pomegranates, and other fruits. Visitors are greeted with friendly grins by the fruit merchants, who are usually glad to let customers try before they buy.
• The road isn't the only option for getting to and from Al Hada. The longest cable car in Saudi Arabia extends 4.2 kilometers from the peak down the mountain, providing a scenic trip among camel caravans, winding roadways, and gloomy cliffs.
• It concludes at the Al Kar Tourist Village at the bottom, which features a water park cut into the slope and a toboggan ride down a metal track. This arcade of shops was created more gracefully than typical entertainment zones, with structures whose arches and columns evoke the Islamic-meets-Roman architecture of the Hijaz region.
• You can pause at the fruit market near the summit, where fruit sellers — often ancestors of local tribes — sell the seasonal produce for which this area is famous.
• During the summer, the park, like many other places in Saudi Arabia, remains open until late. At midnight, when automobile lights on the switchback roads make a serpentine light installation up the slope, the last cable car softly sways up to the summit. Another calm day has ended in Taif's gorgeous mountain region.