★ UNESCO
World Heritage ◈ hidden gem
World Heritage ◈ hidden gem
📷 Tyrrel Burns · Pexels
Where in the world
Saudi Arabia
Hegra
Nabataean · Saudi Arabia
Field notes
- civilizations
- Nabataean
- types
- Necropolis · City
- occupied
- 100 BCE — 100 CE
- country
- Saudi Arabia
The site
Hegra, also known as Mada'in Salih, is a Nabataean city in the Al-'Ula region of Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's southernmost and second-largest settlement after Petra. More than 110 monumental tombs stand carved into its sandstone outcrops, extraordinarily preserved by the arid climate and the absence of later resettlement. Marking the southern edge of Nabataean territory, its wells and oasis farming reveal how these desert engineers made an unforgiving landscape flourish.
