An oasis in the chronicles
Dumat al-Jandal lies about 40 km from Sakaka, capital of the Al-Jouf Region. It first appears in the first half of the first millennium BC, when the Assyrian king Sennacherib campaigned against it; it stayed under Assyrian rule until the 6th century BC, and in 555 BC the Babylonian king Nabonidus took the city.
Marid Castle rises on a hill above the old town, built of stone and mud, with four towers, two wells and two gates. Digs at its base have turned up Nabataean and Roman pottery. A plaque records that Queen Zenobia of Palmyra failed to take it, and the saying attributed to her: "Marid rebelled, and al-Ablaq stood proud."
Mosque and old quarter
Beside the castle stands the Omar bin al-Khattab Mosque, built in 637 on the Caliph's order as he travelled to Jerusalem, and modelled on early mosques such as the Prophet's Mosque. Its minaret, in the south-west corner, is about 12.7 m high.
Around it lies al-Dar'i quarter: terraced stone houses, some of two storeys roofed with tamarisk and palm fronds, linked by alleys under arches. The oasis was added to ISESCO's Islamic World Heritage List in 2020, and its lake is now one of the region's main attractions.