Hegra

Listen first. Out here the quiet is almost complete. You hear wind moving over sand, the crunch of grit under your shoes, and perhaps a bird somewhere among the rocks. The light falls on golden sandstone outcrops that rise from the desert floor like islands. Then your eye catches something that does not belong to nature: a doorway, carved straight into the cliff, with a straight edge where no straight edge should be.

This is Hegra, in the north-west of Saudi Arabia, a short drive from the oasis town of AlUla. You may also see the name Mada'in Salih, which means the cities of Salih. Two thousand years ago this was a thriving settlement of the Nabataeans. They were an Arab people who grew rich on the desert trade routes. Today it is the largest preserved Nabataean site south of Petra, their famous city in Jordan.

Who were the Nabataeans? Picture caravans of camels loaded with frankincense and myrrh, the scented resins that came up from southern Arabia. Those goods travelled north toward the markets of the Mediterranean. The Nabataeans controlled water, wells and stopping points along that route. Hegra sat at a key position on the road. Wealth from that trade paid for what you see around you now.

The tombs are the reason most people come. There are more than one hundred of them, cut into the rock outcrops across the plain. Most date from roughly the first century before Christ to the first century after. Many have carved façades, the decorated fronts that face outward. Behind each façade is a simple chamber cut deeper into the stone. Inside, there are niches where the dead were laid to rest.

Here is the first thing many visitors miss. These grand fronts are tombs, not houses or temples. The living people of Hegra lived in buildings made of mud brick and stone on the open plain. Those homes have mostly gone, and archaeologists are still studying what remains below the sand. So the city you see today is really a city of the dead. The city of the living has almost disappeared.

Look closely at the top of a typical façade. You will often see a row of stepped shapes, like small staircases going up and then down. Scholars link this motif to older traditions from Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. On some tombs there are also carved eagles, urns, faces and small columns. These details mix local Arabian taste with influences from Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Nabataeans were traders, and their art shows it.

Now the second surprise. Above many doorways there is a carved panel of text. These are inscriptions in the Nabataean script, which is an ancestor of the Arabic alphabet. They often name the person who owned the tomb and who could be buried inside. Some even warn against selling the tomb or placing a stranger in it. They name fines for anyone who breaks the rules. In other words, many of these monuments carry something close to a legal contract, cut into stone.

The most photographed tomb stands alone. It is called Qasr al-Farid, which locals translate as the lonely castle. It is not a castle at all. It is a tomb cut from a single large rock, standing apart from the other outcrops. Look at the lower part of the façade. The surface is rough, and the finish stops before the base. The tomb was never completed. Workers seem to have carved from the top downward, so you can see exactly how they worked.

That unfinished face tells a quiet story. Somebody planned this monument and paid for it. Then, for reasons we do not know, the work stopped. Perhaps the owner died, or money ran out, or the times changed. Standing in front of it, you see the chisel marks of people who expected to come back the next day.

Not everything here is about death. To the north-east is a rock outcrop called Jabal Ithlib. Inside it is a carved room known as the Diwan. It has benches cut along its walls. Many scholars think it was a place for religious gatherings or ritual meals. Nearby, a narrow passage runs between high rock walls. It gives a small echo of the famous gorge at Petra, though on a far smaller scale.

Hegra has a longer story too. The Nabataean kingdom was absorbed into the Roman Empire in the early second century. The city slowly faded. In Islamic tradition, the area is linked to al-Hijr, a place named in the Quran. Tradition connects it with the Thamud, an ancient people who, according to the story, ignored the prophet Salih. Because of that story, many travellers over the centuries chose not to stay here. That avoidance may have helped protect the tombs.

One more layer appears near the site. In the early twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire built the Hejaz Railway to carry pilgrims toward Medina. A station stood near Hegra, and old stone buildings from that line still remain. So in one landscape you can see ancient tombs and the traces of a modern railway. In 2008, Hegra became the first site in Saudi Arabia added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Before you move on, take a moment to stand still. Feel the warmth coming off the sandstone. Notice how the colour changes as clouds pass or the sun shifts lower — from pale yellow to deep orange. Look back at the nearest doorway and its carved panel of letters. Someone chose those words two thousand years ago, hoping they would last. They have. And now, for a few minutes, you are the person reading them.