Why One Of The Last Least-Visited Places On Earth Is Fast Turning A Tourist Hotspot

The first glimpse of AlUla is accompanied by incredulity. As your eyes take in the miles after miles of nature-sculpted rocks, you are left wondering every second, "what is that?"

Seriously, what is that?

A City Carved By Time And Tethys

In AlUla, that question is answered by time. As your eyes get accustomed to the landscape, a cross between the Moon and Mars, you realise you're in a city as ancient as time itself. The surreal geography of AlUla is the handiwork of sand, wind and water. There is speculation that the city was carved by wind and the shallow sea, perhaps the fringes of the Tethys, and when the water was gone, what was left were these phantom forms that became what is today AlUla.

The landscape of AlUla. Photo: AFP

But that was many millennia ago. Before animal and man, before the Prophet and the incense traders, before passports and visas. AlUla in its present form dates back at least 2,000 years. The ancient market city on the incense route linking India and the Persian Gulf to Europe and the Levant, AlUla was for long shuttered shut and kept from the gaze of the world. The traders of yore took the lore of AlUla far and wide. Saudi Arabia kept its secret a secret all along.

The Prophet's 'Curse'

The 'Face Rock'. Photo: Getty Images

The reason why AlUla was one of the last untouched-by-tourism places on the earth is equally spectacular. The saying goes that the Prophet called AlUla a 'cursed' city, and forbade his followers from entering it, lest the same curse fell upon them as once plagued its residents. And given that Saudi Arabia was anyway mostly shut to the non-Muslim tourist world till very recently (2019, that is) AlUla stayed blissfully isolated from the travails of time and travellers. It is no longer the same.

AlUla is home to Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photo: AFP

Today, AlUla houses a UNESCO world heritage site. Tombs have been discovered in Hegra that date back many centuries. There are rock inscriptions from many millennia ago. And there are wind-sculpted forms that look like Giacometti carved them on to the scrubland that is this city.

But let's take it one at a time.

Nabatean Lessons Meet Modern Luxury

AlUla today is a destination meant for the well-heeled. Most of its luxury resorts are concentrated in the Ashar Valley, a captivating destination in the country. The Ashar Valley's dramatic wind-carved rock pinnacles and sandstone cliffs set against golden dunes make it a photographer's delight. Some of the Middle East's most coveted addresses are within this national park: Banyan Tree AlUla, Habitas AlUla, Caravan by Habitas and Ashar Tented Resort are the luxury resorts ensconced between the landscape markers here. The markers are the rocks in this extraordinary land.

The swimming pool at Banyan Tree AlUla sits within the rocks. Photo: Author

None of these luxury resorts stick out. And that is their most unique character. Take this: the wifi and telephone towers within the Ashar Valley are camouflaged to look like an extension of the rocks that form the landscape. And why not. Anything that is not carved into the landscape runs the risk of disturbing something almost poetic here. The 2,000-year-old Nabatean civilisation taught the modern world here how to work with horizontality of the desert and verticality of the rocks to retain the very essence of AlUla. 

So, the villas at these resorts are made to look like inscriptions carved into the valley; blended in. The largest of these is the Banyan Tree AlUla, which is so vast that it needs separate receptions for its north and south. The villas each are so far apart from each other that come twilight, and you realise that the nearest human voice is on the other end of the telephone. The resort comprises 47 high-ceilinged villas with canopy tents. The interiors are breathtakingly Arabic, and the one that NDTV spent two nights in - had a ringside view of the Ashar Valley's main character: Maraya.

A Mirage In The Desert

Maraya, the world's largest mirrored building. Photo: AFP

Now, Maraya, if you've been a regular on Instagram, you would know is the world's largest mirrored building. You drive past it and see it disappear into the rocks, and then catch a reflection of yourself staring from the walls. The name is Arabic for mirror and has the same root as that of 'mirage' (Latin: mirari, to look at/to wonder at). Quite like a mirage in the desert, the mirrors of Maraya make you wonder at the trick they play on your eyes. 

9,740 reflective panels form the facade of this concert hall. The building goes hide and seek when the sun is in the sky. After dark, there's no way to know that the desert hides a miracle called Maraya.

Maraya sits in the Ashar Valley in AlUla. Photo: Author

Inside Maraya, many artists have performed. The concert hall holds a full calendar, with tickets selling out like hot cakes. The best seat in the hall is reserved for the Crown Prince's family. You can have the second-best onwards.

A guided tour inside Maraya is incomplete without a cup of coffee at the bright Maraya Cafe. If there's more time at hand, a meal at the in-house restaurant is not a bad idea.

Inside Maraya. Photo: Author

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Whatever the day be for, you can't do AlUla without a night under the stars. The city is a dark sky reserve after all. Once the sun goes down, the complete meaning of light pollution, and what the lack of it is, washes over you. No bright lights are allowed in the city. AlUla wears a shroud every evening, in preparation for the many travellers who want to look up at the night sky and gasp in wonder.

The old town. Photo: Author

The city is an International Dark Sky Park; the Gulf's first. It's a tough badge to uphold. The lights all across the city are shaded and the beams directed downwards lest any light seep out to the sky. The city centre, a marvel in itself, has everything from a Starbucks to popular local restaurants, a mishmash of the old and the new built in the way of the old, and an open-air planetarium to see the stars up above. But if you really want to see the magic of the night sky, a 45-minute ride outside of AlUla is essential.

Open-Air Museum Sculpted By Wind And Water

To the north of AlUla, a 1,540-square-kilometre pocket plays the perfect platform to see the sky from. The Sharaan Natural Reserve, which was on TIME's list of Places To Go last year, shows you why it deserves that spot. The area is a museum carved by the wind and water from many millions of years ago. Nowhere do you see the handiwork of nature as phenomenally as in Sharaan. A 4x4 takes you through the Alqaleebah Gate into the reserve. Once you're in, there's only the sound of the revving four wheels for company. The silence is stunning.

Entering the Sharaan Reserve. Photo: Author

Inside, you only have a handful of other land cruisers and Arabian wolves, gazelles and large-eared foxes for company. There's talk of the critically endangered Arabian leopard being introduced into the reserve, but that's still a little while away. There's miles after miles of soaring red-rock canyons that dot the undulating valley of sand and shrub. The reverie is broken in a valley, as the car comes to a halt in front of the Dancing Rocks. These wind-carved abstract-art-like twisted sandstone towers resemble dancers on a relatively empty dance floor, perhaps enjoying a last dance before the world is blinked back into existence. Wait for the winds to whistle in agreement.

Before you can wrap your head around the structures towering all around you, you are on flats that can give any racing circuit a race for its money. The 4x4 hits race mode the moment its wheels hit the flats. A head-spinning-drive later, we're in front of a rock that has carved on it a timeless moment. A horse, a camel, an animal that looks like a leopard, and petroglyphs that date back to the Neolithic age; all preserved on a rock face.

Rock carvings in AlUla. Photo: Author

Soon, it is time for sunset and we climb a plateau for a better look. My mind cannot keep calm. In less than half an hour, we were to go stargazing, but there's virgin champagne for a sundowner first.

A Sky Full Of Stars

The sun goes down. We follow. The car takes off for our next stop, a hidden camp where a lavish dinner is laid out with the best of culinary treats from across Arabia. After moonrise, and a little heavy from all that inimitable Arabian hospitality, we set off for a walk through a cave, on the other side of which the night sky is to reveal its secrets to us.

Stargazing set-up. Photo: Author

A series of camping chairs greets us after a torch-illuminated trail. We sit. Our guide begins with the story of the first stargazers: the traders who crossed the desert with the help of the North Star. It is as if the North Star was waiting for its tale to be told before twinkling into existence in the desert sky above us. One by one the constellations follow. The moon has disappeared behind the rocks at this point and the dark sky only has millions of stars painted on it. It is bewildering.

A minute later, the inky canvas comes alive with movement. A queue of blinking ants crawls across the sky. I whisper, "Starlink!" Our guide lets out a sigh. Mr Musk's contribution to the constellations isn't quite appreciated by stargazers!

Stargazing in AlUla. Photo:Unsplash

The satellites stroll out of the scene and we return to our star walk. An hour passes by. It is getting a little chilly. We take in the stars for another half hour and realise it is time to leave.

On the drive back to AlUla, I follow the North Star as our driver-guide guides us through the reserve. We're back at the Alqaleebah Gate. He does a quick check of the tyres and we head back to the Ashar Valley. The stars are still glittering bright. From my sit-out deck at Banyan Tree, I let the stars play along a little longer before heading back to the room. The bed is inviting. The sleep, deep and dreamless.

Elephant Rock in AlUla. Photo: Unsplash

The alarm goes off at 4 and I spring upright in a minute. It is time for something spectacular: a hot-air balloon ride above a necropolis.

Up Above A Necropolis

The Prophet's 'curse' kept AlUla closed off from everyone for years. Till 2019, when the first in-depth archaeological survey of the area was done, a move that changed the very understanding of human history in the Arabian peninsula. More than 1,600 Neolithic tombs were found in the area. These mustatils revealed that AlUla was inhabited 7,000 years ago, and a 2021 discovery found that people here had pet dogs in 4000 BCE.

That morning, we rubbed sleep out of our eyes and climbed on to the basket as the balloon got ready for take-off. Our pilot got five of us in one by one before letting the ropes fall to the ground. Soon, we were at the mercy of the winds.

Hot-air balloons in AlUla. Photo: Author

This was our second attempt at the hot-air balloon ride over Hegra; the previous morning was cancelled because the winds were too strong. I muttered a short thank-you to the wind gods as the balloon gained altitude. AlUla fell beneath us and we soared higher and higher, with other balloons dotting the dawn sky that morning. The balloon began drifting towards the necropolis. 

Qasr al-Farid from the air. Photo: Author

Hegra became the second city of the Nabateans when the civilisation expanded to north-west Arabia from the Levant, or modern-day Jordan. This was the 1st Century BCE. So, while Petra was the capital of the civilisation, Hegra became its second most important city. The architecture you see here is in sync with the monuments in Petra. Hegra's sprawling 1.1-hectare complex contains 111 tombs, the most popular of which is the Qasr al-Farid (or Lonely Castle), an incomplete but beautifully preserved tomb. The monolith is the Tomb of Lihyan son of Kuza.

Hashtags And Hot-Air Ballons

Up above AlUla. Photo: Author

It is when you see Hegra that you are shaken awake to the remnants of the Nabatean civilisation. Who were they? These people, desert nomads turned skilful merchants, controlled the incense and spice routes through Arabia and Jordan to Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia (in modern-day Iraq).

From the 4th Century BCE to the 1st Century AD, the Nabateans prospered and became wealthy. It is the wealth that made them visible, till the Romans annexed their massive swaths of land and swallowed up a people. The Nabateans were lost.

Qasr al-Farid in Hegra. Photo: AFP

While Petra was 'discovered' by the West in the 19th Century and became a tourist magnet after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade made it a location to reckon with, Hegra, its sister city a few hundred kilometres south-east, stayed blissfully hidden from the prying feeds of Instagram. That fog of mystery is soon dissipating on reels as hashtags follow hot-air balloons around in Hegra.

From 10,000 feet in the air, Hegra glistens under the bright-orange morning sun. The winds are manageable up here. The rocks underneath look like an abstract painting. We spend an hour squinting our eyes, trying to identify tombs and rocks from the sky, piecing together a lost civilisation, passing through like spirits.

Our incredulity is still intact. But we now know what AlUla is.

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