Info Go Comsa A visitor's gazette for Saudi Arabia
Nabataean tomb facade cut into a sandstone cliff at Hegra

A visitor's gazette · Saudi Arabia

Sandstone and a winter season

Hegra is a Nabataean necropolis. The rest of the valley is rock, an old mud town, and heat that waits until spring.

AlUla, العلا, is a sandstone valley in the northwest. Hegra, الحجر, also called Madain Salih, is a Nabataean necropolis. The tombs are cut into the rock. Winter is the season people actually walk there. Summer is a furnace.

Nabataean tomb facade cut into a sandstone cliff at Hegra
A tomb facade at Hegra. The craftsmen cut the base back from the cliff to reach the height they wanted.

Elephant Rock and the old town

Elephant Rock is a weathered outcrop on the edge of the valley. It is geology, not a ride. The old town of AlUla is packed mud houses below the cliffs. Both are quieter than the tomb row if you go early.

Sandstone outcrop known as Elephant Rock near AlUla
Elephant Rock. A sandstone remnant with a gap that reads, from one angle, as legs.
Packed mud houses of AlUla old town below the cliffs
AlUla old town. Mud houses in a tight grain under the cliffs.

Coverage in town is real. The empty tracks between here and the next city are not. Download maps before you leave the hotel, as the arriving note says.