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AQABA, JORDAN - MAY 27: Jordan’s Wadi Rum is a popular tourist destination with its unique natural scenery as well as ancient petroglyphs, inscriptions and archaeological remains. Situated in southern Jordan, near the border with Saudi Arabia, the Wadi Rum Protected Area illustrates the evolution of pastoral, agricultural and urban activity in the region. Jordanian guide Mohammed Dimyan tells his visitors the history of the ancient drawings and inscriptions engraved on rocks in Thamudic -- an extinct language known from large numbers of inscriptions in Ancient North Arabian (ANA) alphabets. Dimyan learned this ancient language with a training for three years under the supervision of Jordanian academics, American and Canadian experts. "Wadi Rum is a library full of rocks and stones written in the language of the Thamud people," he told. "Many points of the valley have also been a subject of research. Formed in sandstone and granite rock, the Rum Valley has been used as a settlement area by many communities since prehistoric times," he added. Archaeological remains in the site are told to testify to 12,000 years of human occupation in the region. According to UNESCO World Heritage Convention website, the 74,000-hectare site features a varied desert landscape consisting of a range of narrow gorges, natural arches, towering cliffs, ramps, massive landslides and caverns. "The combination of 25,000 rock carvings with 20,000 inscriptions trace the evolution of human thought and the early development of the alphabet," UNESCO says. (Footage by Ahmed Shoura /Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)