Meet the locals of
AlUla
AlUla is a rich desert tapestry of rock-hewn heritage, Mars-like landscapes and an air of mystery. But it's the locals who make this enchanting corner of Arabia so special, and they're ready to introduce visitors to their home...
Words and Images Rhodri Andrews
“Even with 200,000 years of unexplored human history, in many ways AlUla's story is only just beginning.”
That's something I had been told by several people I met during my visit to AlUla. The more I heard it, the more I wanted to understand why. This corner of Saudi Arabia is teeming with ancient treasures wherever you turn, from the ancient Nabataean kingdom of Hegra to the leafy oasis that has served as a lifeline to both its inhabitants and merchants who have passed through here for millennia. But for the average visitor, the cloak of mystery that envelops them often means they pose more questions than answers. And that curiosity, about a place that was misunderstood for so long by Western travellers, needs quenching. But it was these same people – the locals themselves – who were telling me about AlUla's rebirth that were the ones holding the pen, writing fresh chapters in the epic tale of this region. And, as I was finding out, now the country is finally opening up to the wider world, the locals are keen to share the secrets of their home with anyone who visits. It's only been 200,000 years in the making...
Saeed AlAhmari
Archaeologist
Dadan is arguably AlUla's biggest secret. A civilisation that even predates the Nabataeans (including Hegra), its success was built on its position as a key checkpoint along the Arabian Incense Route and the wisdom of the Dadanites to charge a toll to anyone who passed through. What remains of this once mighty kingdom are several simple tombs carved directly into a rockface, but it's now the focus of one of the largest archaeological digs in the world. Saeed AlAhmari has been an archaeologist working here for 20 years, so knows the mysteries of this civilisation better than most...
Credit: Shutterstock
Credit: Shutterstock
“I started digging at Dadan in 2004 and everything I’ve uncovered during that time has been another piece in understanding the Dadan puzzle. I was part of a team that discovered several huge Lihyanite statues several years ago, one of which, the Lihyanite King Statue, is on display at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. These statues were symbols of the three Gods they worshipped – Sun, Moon and Jupiter.
“The Dadanites were a really tolerant society and it’s only now we’re beginning to understand more about them and how they operated. Dadan was an important place along the ancient Arabian Incense Route and because so many different people passed through here makes it so much more interesting. You don’t know what you’ll find from day to day.
“What’s even more exciting is that we’ve only excavated about 4-5% of the entire site, so we’re only beginning to tell the story of Dadan.”
Amal Aljohani
Rawi
Hegra is AlUla's poster child and Saudi Arabia's answer to Petra, so it's not surprising it's a large chunk of the allure for visitors coming here, especially as it welcomes a tiny fraction of the crowds its better-known cousin draws. Over 110 Nabataean tombs are sprinkled across the desert here, as well as several monuments and ornamental carvings. But what's most remarkable here is how well preserved this kingdom is, something that played a part in it becoming Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008.
Since 2019, a guiding programme has allowed locals to be a forefront of telling visitors about AlUla's story, training them to become rawis (local storytellers). One of them is Amal Aljohani, but what's unusual is she's a woman – something she scarcely would have believed possible until several cultural reforms in 2017 expanded women's rights. Now, as she walked me around some of AlUla's signature tombs like Jabal Al-Banat and Qasr Al-Farid, she couldn't hide her pride...
“It’s an exciting time to be in AlUla, especially as a woman.
"I’m able to show off my pride and passion for our history and play my part in telling Saudi’s story. The change in the country has enabled me to choose what I want to be and I’ve wanted to be a rawi as long as I can remember.
"It’s not just about the history of the country and female rights – I think it’s far bigger than that. We’re now able to help shape our country’s future and, for me, I can help educate visitors who come here.”
Mamdouh Albalawi
Oasis rawi
Perhaps out of everything in AlUla, it's its Oasis that has changed the least over the centuries. And that's saying something. Cultivated for millennia, its life-giving properties have proved to be a lifeline for so many, from the Bedouins who came from the desert, weary merchants who stopped here along the Incense Route or pilgrims. The ultimate crossroads of civilisations. Today, it's remained somewhere people come together.
As my guide Mamdouh Albalawi led me along mud pathways that snaked through ancient architecture and checkerboards of green, I spotted pockets of okra, onions, lettuces and peppers, while the hundreds of date palms provided shade for smaller fruit trees to thrive, growing mangoes, lemons, apples and more. Mamdouh told me the Oasis isn't just a way for the locals of AlUla to live sustainably but also to honour their ancestors by farming this land in the same way they did.
“The Oasis here has been in use since 1,200BC. At its height, locals used to have one house in the Oasis and another in the Old Town. They kept their houses in the Oasis deliberately on the small side so they had more room for farming. Locals back then were very resourceful – they used anything around them to farm in the oasis and now we are trying to follow in their footsteps by making the oasis the central cog for daily life in AlUla. But we also want to pass this information onto visitors to AlUla and I’m proud to be playing a small part in that.
“We’re always learning about our past and what the Oasis was used for and it’s a great feeling to pass that onto other people, no matter what part of the world they’re from.”
Raghad Arafas & Saud Alasiri
Teachers at Turquoise Mountain
At the heart of AlUla's Old Town and surrounded by the natural majesty of the region's rust-red rocks, a quiet revolution is building at Turquoise Mountain. For this foundation has been leading the charge in upskilling locals in a range of traditional arts and crafts to the point where they can start businesses using their new-found expertise. The work of Turquoise Mountain really accelerated from 2019 onwards when they joined forces with the Royal Commission for AlUla and took over a building that was once Saudi Arabia's first girls' school and transformed it into a thriving arts space for local women.
“It’s important to us to ensure that our ancient artisanal techniques are not forgotten. We want to shout about our heritage and ensure that locals can engage with their past, whether it’s working with copper or brass or silver, ceramics or fabrics,” explains Saud Alasiri, a program manager at Turquoise Mountain.
“We’ve seen local women come to remember techniques they’ve not practiced for a long time as well as people who just want to learn new skills. They’re actively helping contribute to the future of AlUla, whether it’s providing hotels with pieces of art they can use in rooms or helping to design the patterning paving you can see in AlUla’s creative AlJadidah district.”
As I walked around the centre, every room had something new going on, whether it was fashioning a cabinet out of wood, making jewellery in a metalwork class or fine-tuning traditional handwriting with a calligraphy workshop. But every time I entered a room, the most striking thing was the wave of warmth, happiness and laughter that greeted me as they perfect their techniques. The women were proud to show off their creations, knowing they'd make a difference one day, either to their own fledgling business or on display somewhere in AlUla.
I spoke to Raghad Arafas, who was leading a metalwork class, who spoke about the opportunities being presented to women throuhh Turquoise Mountain that hadn't been available before.
“I was born in AlUla, before leaving the area to study. Now I’ve come back and the place is completely different. I started doing the workshops at Turquoise Mountain to give something back and I’m really proud to be doing that. I lead a group of 12 other students on a three-year programme and I couldn’t have really imagined being given this kind of leadership role before.
“Now AlUla is being visited more and more, it’s really exciting to think more people will discover the good work we do too.”
Saeed Aljohani
Old Town rawi
If AlUla's Oasis is its soul, then its Old Town is its heartbeat. It's the best place to really what life was really life in ancient AlUla and how its many civilisations both lived and adapted to the landscape around them. Both small in size and with no cars permitted, it's an atmospheric place to stroll and to literally walk in the footsteps of pilgrims, traders and locals who once lived, socialised and exchanged goods here. Like much of AlUla, there are still plenty of questions but with the Old Town being inhabited since the 12th century, this is the place to find the answers.
AlUla's Old Town was abandoned in the 1980s but since 2017 it has been undergoing significant restoration. My guide Saeed Aljohani explained, as we wandered through alleyways flanked by tightly packed stone and mud-brick houses, that restoring the Old Town to its former glory was essential to helping locals reconnect to their roots. While large chunks of the Old Town was beautifully back to its best, it was fascinating to visit some corners still undergoing work. That included the new boutique hotel Dar Tantora, created within former mid-brick homes to give visitors a truly authentic local experience. To really get a sense of how the Old Town had been reborn, I climbed to the top of its 10th-century Citadel, the highest part of the Old Town and the ideal vantage point to see how it was transforming as the restoration work progressed.
“AlUla Old Town was abandoned 35 years ago, so there are still people living in AlUla that remember what it was like back then. To see it being brought back to life is really special,” enthused Saeed.
“I’ve been taking locals back around the Old Town, including members of my own family, and they can’t believe how well it’s been restored. They point out where they used to live and that’s when their memories start flooding back. It’s really lovely to see.
“Now, visitors will see the transformation and get to experience the ancient AlUla themselves, exactly like it used to be for the locals only a generation or two ago.”
Tahani Alghaithi, Mona Mutair & Fatimah Abu Homoud
Old Town elders
What most locals don't realise before they explore AlUla is how friendly the locals really are. In the past, Saudi Arabia is a country that has kept its cards close to its chest and I'd expected its locals to be quite reserved, keeping to themselves. But how wrong I was. Like the guides who had shown me around this enchanting region, the locals' curiosity often got the better of them, as I often found myself stopped and asked where I'd come from and what had brought me to AlUla. I was only too happy to reciprocate the curiosity and have a chat with them, one that often lasted for several glorious minutes. Each conversation ended with the same conclusion: we are more alike than we thought.
My local encounters reached a crescendo when I managed to sit down with several of the Old Town's female elders and listen their thoughts on what it's like to live in AlUla right now...
“The transformation in AlUla has been wonderful. I think it's wonderful they've been true to the heritage of AlUla while reviving the Old Town while combining it with the needs of the present day. It's exactly how it used to be when we were kids, except for the introduction of electricity. That's made it better as the extra light at night-time has made it safer for us women to go out in the evenings.” Tahani Alghaithi
“All our our families used to live here in the Old Town. I lived here until I was seven years old and my father used to own a grocery shop here selling sugar, rice and more. We all used to be one big family – our houses only used to be for sleeping in because we spent so much time with one another!
“It's great to be able to bring back younger generations of our families to show them where we used to live and see it being brought back to life. The coffee shop here now used to be a bakery where I used to buy my bread; you can still see the old oven here! Walking in the Old Town brings back so many memories where we used to enjoy the simple life, splashing around in the Oasis every summer.” Mona Mutair
“We are proud to be Saudi women living in the present day, especially since things changed in 2017. It has changed for the better.
“It's also amazing to see visitors coming to experience AlUla for the first time. We used to have picnics underneath Elephant Rock and climb the mountains before people outside of Saudi even knew they existed. Now we just need visitors to spread the word about the beauty of AlUla's heritage and how welcoming Saudi hospitality is!” Fatimah Abu Homoud
Enass al-Sharif
Khaybar rawi
About a three-hour drive north of AlUla lies an ancient city even older than Hegra: Khaybar. Like Dadan and Hegra, Khaybar played a pivotal role as a key stop along the Incense Route and together with AlUla and neighbouring Tayma, they form a triangular oasis that is also akin to one of the planet's largest living museums of human prehistory. Nature provided the perfect platform for human development here, with the nutrient-rich soils of the Harrat Khaybar volcano to the oasis, known as Ain AlJammah and Hasat AlDabal, that's veined by freshwater springs. As we walked along palm-lined pathways, myy guide Enass al-Sharif explained how Khaybar was once a settlement fiercely fought over, contested by Arab Christians, Jews and Muslims centuries ago.
“The fort of AlNizar that rises up from the centre of the oasis has been conquered several times. Moving to the present day, families started moving out of Khaybar in the 1970s, like what has happened in AlUla. The last family moved out in 1988 and we're in the process of restoring it to its former glory and welcoming visitors once again.”
But to really appreciate Khaybar and its diverse mix of landscapes, you need to see it from up high. What a place for my first-ever helicopter flight, I thought, and I wasn't disappointed. As well as the seeing the fort and oasis from a different perspective, my lofty vantage point gave me an all-compassing glimpse of Khaybar's vast lava fields – where more of its mysteries unfold in the form of its millennia-old pendant tombs prove life existed here long before Khaybar was fought over.
“If it wasn't for a pilot noticing the patterns of these tombs in the 1920s, who knows when we would have discovered them. The first mention of Khaybar in written text was about 2,000 years ago but evidence from these tombs and other archaeological discoveries, we believe Khaybar has been inhabited for over 200,000 years. But there's so much more we have to learn.”
And there we have it. Another sign that the ancient story of AlUla – and the wider region – is only just starting to be written. There are a lot of chapters still to be covered and blanks to be filled in, but it's going to be a compelling read. One thing's for sure: the locals will continue to be the storytellers, as they've been for generations.
About the trip
The author travelled as part of a trip organised by the Royal Commission for AlUla.
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