Valley and oasis
AlUla is a governorate of Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah Region in the north-west of the Kingdom, its valley lying about 300 km from Madinah. It borders Tayma, Khaybar, Al-Eis, Al-Wajh and Duba, and counted about 60,103 residents in the 2022 census.
The oasis holds about 2.3 million date palms over some 10,000 hectares, producing an estimated 90,000 tonnes of dates a year. Around 200,000 citrus trees of 29 varieties grow along 20 km of fresh water, beside some 90,000 moringa peregrina trees prized for their oil.
Layers of history
Dadan is the earliest known name of AlUla, and the Lihyanite kingdom that followed lasted until the second century BC. In the first century BC the Nabataeans settled at Hegra, their second capital after Petra, which in 2008 became the Kingdom's first site on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In the early Islamic era Qurh, today al-Mabiyat, was a major centre.
The Royal Commission for AlUla was established by royal decree on 20 July 2017. Its Journey Through Time masterplan, launched in 2021, spans about 20 km with five centres, some 5,000 new rooms and fifteen cultural facilities, threading together sites from Dadan to the Old Town.