Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus is a rare winter visitor to the northern Hejaz and Central Arabia that has been recorded once in Jeddah and once in the Eastern Province on the Dibdibah 18 & 19 December 1986. As a result of the status of the species it is possible/probable the birds all refer to a single individual, as the distance between the first and second sightings was about 100 kilometres to the west, and the distance from the second to the third sighting was about 80 kilometres to the north. On July 20, 2015 we saw similar species at Tanoma Mountain Al Hejaz Region while we were traveling from Abha to Al Baha.
Habala (Arabic:حبلة) is a small mountain village in the 'Asir province of Saudi Arabia. It was originally inhabited by a tribal community known as the "flower men" because of their custom of wearing garlands of dried herbs and flowers in their hair. In the past, the village was only accessible by rope ladder, and in fact, the name Habala comes from the Arabic word for rope.
"Another scenic area, although isolated, is northwards along the escarpment from Habalah. Here three great pillars of rock stand away from the edge of the escarpment. One, with a top shaped like Cleopatra's needle, is supposed to make a poet of anyone who can stay there all night without becoming insane. The others are flat topped with a green sward and on one are the remains of house foundations as well as many cairns arranged like sentinels along the edge of the sheer cliff."[1]In the 1990s, during a push to promote tourism in the region, a cable car was built to provide access to the traditional village with its stark mountain views. In consequence, however, the local "flower men" were dispossessed of their homes and forced to move into a modern village created for them in the valley below. When they refused to move, they were evacuated forcibly by the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Today, some of the original inhabitants are allowed back up to the village, but only to perform their traditional dances for tourists during the summer months.
