Jabal Al Safina (Ship Rock)

Jabal Al Safina, known in English as Ship Rock, is a sandstone mountain in the Hisma desert of north-west Saudi Arabia. "Safina" means ship, and erosion has left the rock looking like a vessel at anchor on the sand. It lies about 80 km west of Tabuk, reached by heading west along the Tabuk to Duba road, and it sits close to the Bajdah desert and the Bajdah Wildlife Reserve, which is why some sources place it inside the NEOM area. Saudipedia reports Thamudic inscriptions on the rock surfaces, dated to more than 2,600 years ago, as well as later pre-Islamic Arabic writing. These make the rock more than a landscape feature: people crossing this plain left their names and marks here over many centuries. The mountain is usually visited on a day trip with other sights in the Hisma and Bajdah desert, such as arches and sandstone massifs. Jibal Hisma is described as a desert of sandstone massifs sculpted by erosion, with rock arches attributed to wind and the underlying rock.