Hegra (Madāʼin Ṣāliḥ)

Hegra (al-Hijr, also called Madāʼin Ṣāliḥ) was a city of the Nabataeans, the same civilization that built Petra, and UNESCO describes it as the largest conserved Nabataean site south of Petra in Jordan. Its monumental tombs, cut into sandstone outcrops from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD, carry carved facades and dated Nabataean inscriptions recording who was buried and by whom. The site also preserves some 50 pre-Nabataean inscriptions, cave drawings, and Nabataean water wells that testify to their hydraulic engineering in the desert. Standout monuments include the Tomb of Lihyan Son of Kuza, the largest tomb facade, and Qasr al-Farid, a single unfinished tomb carved from a freestanding boulder. In the Qur'an, al-Hijr is associated with the people of Thamud, and the site sits within a landscape of older Dedanite and Lihyanite settlements.

Hegra was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2008, the first Saudi site so listed. Since then access has been transformed by the Royal Commission for AlUla: visits run as guided experiences led by AlUla's trained storytellers, the Rawis, traveling by shuttle through the site. What you can see is curated and ticketed, and the tombs themselves remain the draw.

Visiting

The Royal Commission for AlUla runs visits as the Hegra Day Tour, 2 to 3 hours including transfer, departing from Winter Park or the Hegra Visitor Centre, with tours through the day and online booking. Fees start from SAR 95 per person (official Experience AlUla page, verified October 2026), with higher tiers for premium tours. Check your nationality's current Saudi Arabia travel advisory before planning.

Photo: Following Hadrian, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:27,_Hegra_(Mada%27in_Salih),_Saudi_Arabia.jpg))