AlUla

The valley has been settled for at least three thousand years, because water lay close to the surface in a dry corridor where the incense caravans from southern Arabia travelled north to the Levant and Egypt. The kingdom of Dadan, later Lihyan, built its capital here in the first millennium BC, cutting tombs into the cliff above the oasis and leaving thousands of inscriptions on the rock walls of Jabal Ikmah, where traders and travellers recorded names, prayers and dedications in several scripts.

From the first century BC the Nabataeans, whose capital was Petra, held the valley and built Hegra as their southern city. Their masons carved more than a hundred monumental tomb facades into free-standing sandstone outcrops, dated by inscription to roughly the first century AD, and cut wells to supply the town. Rome annexed the Nabataean kingdom in 106 AD and stationed troops here; the site was later abandoned, and in Islamic tradition it became associated with the story of the people of Thamud.

Medieval and Ottoman AlUla was a walled oasis settlement a few kilometres south of Hegra, on the pilgrimage road from Damascus to Medina. Its mud-brick houses were packed together behind a single gate for defence, with a fort on the rock above, and families farmed the palm gardens below. The Hejaz Railway, built between 1901 and 1908 to link Damascus with Medina, ran through the valley. Residents left the old town for new housing through the twentieth century, and from 2017 the Saudi government made the valley the centre of a large heritage and tourism programme, opening Hegra to visitors in 2020 and restoring parts of the old town.

AlUla's identity is agricultural and tribal. Families have farmed the same palm plots for generations, and the old town's layout — houses sharing walls, a single defended entrance, plots divided and redivided among heirs — records a community that lived by the oasis and its water rights. The Tantora sundial, a stone marker that told farmers when the seasons turned, gave its name to the modern winter festival.

The valley's rock art and inscriptions are a source of considerable local pride, and heritage work has brought a generation of AlUla residents into archaeology, guiding and hospitality; guides at the sites are largely local, and the craft workshops in the old town revive weaving, palm work and pottery. Cultural events during the winter season — concerts at Maraya, outdoor art, heritage days, camel and equestrian events — have made a small town host to large international audiences, a change residents discuss with a mixture of pride and wariness.

Customs are those of a conservative rural community. Hospitality is formal and generous, with Arabic coffee and dates offered to any visitor; greetings are lengthy; and modest dress is expected of everyone. The day pauses at each of the five prayers, and Friday is the quietest morning of the week. Visitors are asked to keep to marked paths at the archaeological sites, where touching inscriptions or climbing tomb facades is not allowed.

AlUla town is small — a few thousand residents in the town itself, within a governorate that counts tens of thousands spread across surrounding villages and farms. Almost everyone lives in the low modern streets north of the old town, in villas and small apartment blocks, or in the farming settlements along the valley. The old town is empty of residents and now works as a heritage site.

Farming still underpins the valley: dates above all, along with citrus, figs and vegetables under the palms, with local honey and small livestock holdings. Tourism is now the other pillar, and has grown very fast — hotels and resorts, guiding, transport, site management, construction and the winter events season employ a large share of working-age residents, alongside government offices, schools and health services. Many younger people who once left for Medina or Riyadh for work have found jobs in the valley.

The rhythm is small-town and seasonal. Mornings start early; the middle of a summer day is spent indoors; evenings bring families out to the old town lanes, the oasis paths and the restaurants on the main street. Winter is the busy half of the year, when the valley fills with visitors and events. Current issues are those of rapid development in a small place: pressure on water and housing, the cost of living, and how far tourism should reshape a farming community.

AlUla eats the food of the northern Hejaz and the Najd, built around rice, lamb, chicken and bread. Kabsa, long-grain rice cooked with meat, tomato, dried lime and a warm spice mix, is the standard meal, served on a shared platter and eaten with the right hand. Mandi and madfun, meat and rice slow-cooked in a pit oven, are common in restaurants, and crushed-wheat porridges cooked with meat or yoghurt belong to the older home cooking of the region. Breakfast is ful, fava beans stewed with cumin, with flatbread, eggs and white cheese.

Dates are the valley's produce and its emblem. The oasis grows several varieties, eaten fresh and soft at the end of summer and dried through the year, pressed into paste for biscuits, boiled into syrup, or simply served beside coffee. Citrus, figs, pomegranates and moringa grow under the palms, and local honey is sold in the town. Some farms open to visitors, and date packing is a familiar sight in the weeks after the harvest.

Arabic coffee is the social centre of everything: lightly roasted, spiced with cardamom and sometimes saffron, poured from a long-spouted dallah into small handleless cups and refilled until the guest tilts the cup. Tea is drunk very sweet, often with mint. Alcohol is illegal in the kingdom, so evenings run on coffee, tea and fresh juice, and the cafés in the restored old town lanes have added espresso to the list.