In a desert oasis two hundred miles to the north of Madinah, amidst vast sandstone mountains and under a night sky glittering with stars, the landscape reverberates to the soaring sounds of Italian opera and popular songs.
In this most stunning of settings, visitors to the first Winter at Tantora Festival enjoyed more than just a magical night of music from legendary tenor Andrea Bocelli. In the ancient town of AlUla, they became privileged spectators to the unveiling of one of the world’s most mysterious and unspoiled ancient landscapes.
“Here, every rock is a witness. Every road is a pathway into history that spans millennia. And every citizen has a story to tell,” says Amr AlMadani, the CEO of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), established in 2017 to develop the region and share its heritage with the world.
“Our vision is to create a living museum.” Amr AlMadani, CEO, Royal Commission for AlUla
The human story of this desert region is long. Rock art and carved inscriptions testify to the presence of early men and women dating back thousands of years. It was here that the first great kingdoms of Northern Arabia developed: the Dadanites of biblical fame, then the Lihyanites and finally the Nabataeans, best known for the famed city of Petra, who chose this region for their second and most southerly capital, Hegra.
Their legacy is etched in the landscape of AlUla, from the ancient tombs carved into the cliffs near Dadan to the sophisticated irrigation systems, intricate rock tomb carvings and multilingual inscriptions left by the Nabataeans before the Roman annexation of northern Arabia in 106 CE.
Today, teams of international archaeologists work with their local Saudi counterparts, using cutting edge technology to explore, map out and discover AlUla’s rich heritage and history through exceptional archaeology programs, developing a growing Center of Excellence in the area. Local communities are also deeply involved in the plans for the region. And through an RCU program, students have embarked on international scholarships to study tourism, history, archaeology and architecture, which will prepare them to become custodians of this World Heritage Site.
A new chapter is beginning for AlUla, “We are offering visitors who come to AlUla the opportunity to travel through time in a truly awe-inspiring destination,” AlMadani says
As published in Fortune magazine
