Wadi Rum's sheer sandstone mesas rise straight off the red desert floor of southern Jordan, cut by wind and rare flash floods into flat-topped massifs and a natural rock bridge you can stand on. Orbit the valley, swap the color bands, and toggle the landmark markers.
Published figures: Jebel Rum rises about 1,734 m above sea level, roughly 800 m of sheer cliff above the valley floor; the Um Fruth Rock Bridge spans about 15 m up in the air within walking reach.
Drag to orbit and scroll or pinch to zoom. Everything renders on your device with WebGL.
Wadi Rum 3D Explorer
This browser explorer shows Wadi Rum as a field of rugged, flat-topped sandstone jebels rising sheer from the red desert floor of southern Jordan - the landscape known locally as the Valley of the Moon. A slim natural rock bridge stands in the corridor between the two largest massifs, one of several such arches scattered through the valley.
Wadi Rum sits inside the Wadi Rum Protected Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011 recognized for both its desert scenery and thousands of years of rock art and inscriptions left by passing cultures. The mesas are built from Rum sandstone laid down more than 500 million years ago over an older granite basement, and centuries of wind, heat, and rare flash floods have carved their sheer cliff faces. Exposed rock surfaces slowly darken with desert varnish - a thin coating of manganese and iron oxides that builds up where the same face has faced the sun undisturbed for a very long time.
- Toggle desert-varnish color bands to see the dark streaking that collects near exposed cliff tops and rims
- Toggle landmark markers at Jebel Rum's summit and the rock bridge
- Read peak elevation, cliff height, and rock-bridge figures in the panel
- See the flat-topped mesa shape carved by wind and rare flash floods
- Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom
- Runs fully in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no upload
| Figure | Published value |
|---|---|
| Jebel Rum elevation | about 1,734 m above sea level - Jordan's second-highest peak |
| Cliff height above valley | roughly 800 m of sheer sandstone and granite |
| Valley floor elevation | about 950 m above sea level |
| Um Fruth Rock Bridge | a natural rock arch about 15 m above the ground |
| Rock formation age | Rum sandstone laid down more than 500 million years ago over an older granite basement |
| Protected area | about 720 sq km (about 74,000 ha) - UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011 |
| Climate | hyper-arid desert - average rainfall well under 50 mm a year |
For other desert and dryland landscapes, open the Sahara Desert 3D Explorer (the world's largest hot desert) or the Sossusvlei 3D Explorer (Namibia's star-dune field above the Deadvlei clay pan).
Everything renders on your device with WebGL. The 3D engine loads once (about 0.7 MB) and is cached.
This is an educational approximation - the mesa field, rock bridge, and color bands are procedural teaching cues, not a survey of the actual terrain.
Frequently Asked Questions
How tall are the mesas at Wadi Rum?
Jebel Rum, the tallest, reaches about 1,734 m above sea level - roughly 800 m of sheer cliff above the valley floor. It is Jordan's second-highest peak.
What is the Um Fruth Rock Bridge?
A natural rock arch about 15 m above the ground, one of several rock bridges scattered through Wadi Rum that visitors can walk across.
Why is Wadi Rum called the Valley of the Moon?
Its bare red sand, sheer sandstone cliffs, and near-total lack of vegetation give the valley an otherworldly look that has made it a stand-in for extraterrestrial landscapes in film.
What is desert varnish?
A thin dark coating of manganese and iron oxides that slowly builds up on exposed rock surfaces over long, undisturbed spans of time - visible as dark streaking near clifftops and rims.
Where is Wadi Rum?
In the Wadi Rum Protected Area in southern Jordan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011 covering about 720 sq km of desert.
Is this a geological simulation?
No. It is an educational explorer using published park and geographic figures - the mesa field, rock bridge, and color bands are procedural teaching cues.