The sandstone massifs which rise up on either side of the valley immerse the old city of Al-Ula (Saudi Arabia) in a captivating ocher light. It infiltrates through the moucharabiehs, through the interstices which crack, here and there, this compact fabric of narrow streets, lined with small earthen dwellings… While the teams from Archaïos, a French scientific research company in the field of archeology, are still hard at work in the Ottoman quarter of the city (17the-XIXe century), around thirty houses have already been rehabilitated in its oldest part (Xe-XIIe century) and transformed into luxury hotels.
Within two years, a six-volume monograph will retrace the history of this unique complex, said Jessica Giraud, president and founder of Archaïos, in November 2024. “An entire town, 900 houses, is a gold mine for archaeologists! » What’s more when it is located on such a fascinating site, the existence of which the world did not know until the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Ben Salman, known as “MBS”, decided to place it at the heart of the national story.
Sculpted more than two thousand years ago in large rock monoliths, the Nabataean tombs of Hegra, located in the middle of the desert, a few kilometers north of the old city, make up, with the sandstone and basalt plateaus which structure this area in the northwest of the country, a breathtaking setting, halfway between Monument Valley and the pyramids of Luxor.
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