Three Days in AlUla: A Desert Journal from Saudi Arabia's Ancient Valley
Day 1: Mirrors and Elephants
The flight from Riyadh to AlUla took ninety minutes. The landscape below shifted from flat beige to sculptured sandstone valleys — the Hejaz region looks like Mars with better colors.
AlUla Airport (ULH) is small and new. The hotel shuttle collected me efficiently. I'd booked a mid-range apartment in the new town (250 SAR/night, ~$67) — the luxury resorts (Habitas, Banyan Tree, from 1,500 SAR) were out of my budget and fully booked anyway.
First stop: Maraya Concert Hall. I'd seen photos but the reality is harder to process. It's a rectangle covered in 9,740 square metres of mirrors that reflect the desert landscape so perfectly the building almost disappears. You're looking at it and looking through it simultaneously. No concert tonight (check experiencealula.com for the schedule), but the exterior alone — especially in late afternoon when the sandstone cliffs glow and the mirrors turn golden — is worth the drive.
Evening: Elephant Rock (Jabal AlFil). A natural sandstone formation that looks exactly like an elephant reaching down with its trunk. Free to visit. A cafe at the base serves Arabic coffee and dates. I sat on cushions in the open-air seating area and watched the rock turn from ochre to deep orange as the sun dropped.
The scale of the sandstone formations around AlUla is consistently staggering. These aren't rocks — they're geological cathedrals, carved by wind over millions of years into shapes that look designed.
Spent today: 380 SAR (~$101) — accommodation, meals, coffee at Elephant Rock.
Day 2: Hegra and the Inscriptions
I'd pre-booked the 8 AM Hegra tour through experiencealula.com (95 SAR). The shuttle from the Visitor Centre took fifteen minutes through the desert to the archaeological zone.
Hegra (Mada'in Salih) is Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Nabataeans carved 111 monumental tombs into sandstone outcrops between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE. These are the same people who built Petra in Jordan, using the same techniques.
The guide was excellent — educated, passionate, fluent in English and the history. She explained the inscriptions above the tomb doorways: names of the deceased, curses against tomb violators ("may Dushara destroy whoever opens this tomb"), dates of construction. Unlike Petra, where most inscriptions have eroded, many of Hegra's are crisp and readable — we compare the two sites in detail in our AlUla vs Petra guide.
The Tomb of Lihyan son of Kuza is the largest — a multi-story facade carved from a standalone sandstone outcrop. Standing at its base, looking up at the eagles carved on the pediment, the scale of Nabataean ambition becomes clear. This wasn't a culture that built small.
Afternoon: Dadan and Jabal Ikmah. The ancient Dadanite/Lihyanite kingdom predates the Nabataeans by centuries (1st millennium BC). The rock-cut tombs here are smaller and less ornate but historically significant. Jabal Ikmah — the "open-air library" — has hundreds of inscriptions in multiple ancient languages carved into cliff faces. Scholars are still decoding them.
75 SAR for the guided tour. Less crowded than Hegra. I had a section of cliff face essentially to myself, reading inscriptions that were carved 2,500 years ago by people recording their names, their deeds, their prayers.
Spent today: 420 SAR (~$112) — tours, meals, shuttle.
Day 3: The Old Town, the Oasis, and the Stars
Morning: AlUla Old Town guided walk (75 SAR). A labyrinth of 900+ abandoned mudbrick houses, narrow alleys, and a hilltop citadel. The guide explained the urban planning — the layout follows a logic of clan territories, water access, and defensive positioning. From the citadel, the valley spreads below: date palm oasis, sandstone formations, the road to Hegra.
The restoration work is ongoing. Workers repair mudbrick using traditional techniques — mixing mud, straw, and water by hand. The commitment to authentic restoration rather than concrete reconstruction is genuine.
Afternoon: the Oasis Heritage Trail. A 2.5 km walk through the date palm oasis — 2+ million palms. Ancient irrigation channels (falaj system) still carry water. The temperature drops under the canopy. A vendor sold fresh dates by the bag (10 SAR) — the sukkari variety was caramel-sweet and melting.
Evening: I drove 15 km out of town to a dark desert pullout. No flashlight. No phone screen. Just darkness.
AlUla has Bortle Class 1-2 skies — 300+ clear nights per year, zero light pollution. The Milky Way appeared as a structured, detailed band across the sky. I could see individual star clusters, dust lanes, the smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy. Jupiter was bright enough to cast a faint shadow on the sand.
I sat on the hood of the rental car for an hour. A shooting star every three or four minutes. The silence was total. Not quiet — total. No wind. No insects. No machines. The kind of silence that makes your ears ring.
The Habitas resort offers guided stargazing with telescopes. But the naked-eye experience from any dark spot was already extraordinary.
Spent today: 310 SAR (~$83) — Old Town tour, oasis, dates, dinner at a local cafe (lamb kabsa, 25 SAR — fragrant rice with slow-cooked lamb, the best meal of the trip).
The Departure
Three days. Total spent: 1,360 SAR (~$363), including accommodation, all tours, all meals, and the rental car.
AlUla is Saudi Arabia at its most ambitious. The investment is massive — new airports, resort brands, cultural programming, restoration projects. But underneath the development, the valley itself is the star. Sandstone formations shaped by 200 million years of wind. Tombs carved by people who wanted to be remembered. Stars that the Nabataeans, the Dadanites, the Lihyanites, and every other civilization in this valley looked up at.
The desert doesn't care about tourism strategies. It just sits there, being extraordinary, and waits for you to notice.
Pair AlUla with the complete Nabataean journey if you can. Fly in via Jeddah for the best connections, and aim for October-March, when the sites are open and the night events add another dimension.
And give yourself more time at Jabal Ikmah than I did — those inscriptions deserve hours, not the 45 minutes the tour allows. Our 15 AlUla tips cover the rest of the planning so you can avoid the common mistakes.
