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GEEL

A dead-end full of promise

written and photographed by PINAKI CHAKRAVARTY

“By the time men had acquired such things they
had lost the will to build walls out of wadi stones�/span>

TIMELESS

Bridging the gap

Nothing seems to have changed in this little cup between mountains for the past 1,000 years. True, the trees would have died, but successive generations would have sprung up in their place, and they would have looked much like the present-day vegetation. This is the first feeling you get as you sit atop a hillock in Wadi Geel, that hint that you are looking upon what people of another civilisation, or some rudimentary form of it, had seen too. Geel is timeless.

It is also silent, at least on first impression. Soon, you will hear the little sounds, like the crisp flap of the pages of your notebook, or the wind through the leaves of the sidr, or the shirt slapping against your back. Occasionally, the wadi will bring with it a faraway sound, like a goatherd from Tokzah, calling out to his herd. Everything, even the wind, bounces off Jebel Misht and its characteristic jagged top that casts shadows even when it should be afternoon. For a moment, anything seems possible.

Previous tenants had left a few clues, including the remains of two stone rooms that were used to shelter at night, or to house goats. There are a few rusted cans and batteries lying about �later additions, perhaps, for by the time men had acquired such things they had lost the will to build walls out of wadi stones.

Such a fabulous landscape �with its immediate area rich in stunted, centuries-old trees, old stone dwellings and casually undulating terrain surrounded by mountains �should be a blank canvas against which you should have an intelligent conversation, or be shown something of monumental importance. But there is nothing here except the wind, and seemingly endless possibilities.

GET TO GEEL

Kilometre readings

Wadi Geel is a great place to camp on your way to explore the surrounding landscape: Jebel Kawr, the plateau around Sint, the tombs of al Ain and Bat and the fabulous stretch of wadi in between.

To get to Wadi Geel turn left at the roundabout (you will find directions to this little roundabout on page 32) that is at the crossroads between Sint and al Ain.

Turning left will take you through a dusty road through the village of Tokzah. Keep on the main track and it will take you out to Wadi Geel on your left, and past large farms with greenhouses full of cucumber. This is another oddity of the area, one that you will find spread over the landscape from Wahrah and Bat onwards, and one that deserves its own story in another issue of this magazine.

A few turns ahead and you are in Geel, with civilisation behind you. The track breaks up into a number of ways that snake around the wadi, and you will find the ruins of a couple of stone rooms towards the right.