ECHOES in the SAND

Guided by a Rawi, Kannagi Desai journeys through AlUla—a land where history is still being uncovered, art is reshaping the sands, and the past and future are eternally intertwined

- Kannagi Desai

"The land remembers," the Rawi tells me, his voice steady against the desert wind. "Even when we forget, the rocks whisper, the sands shift, and the stories rise again."

AlUla is a landscape of rediscovery. Here, history is not confined to the past—it is still being excavated, revealing its layers to those willing to listen. For thousands of years, this valley in northwestern Saudi Arabia has been a meeting place of civilisations—Nabataean traders, Lihyanite kings, Ottoman pilgrims—all leaving their imprint on the golden sandstone. But AlUla is not just a relic of what was. It is a place still becoming.

A crossroads of civilisations

For centuries, AlUla stood at the crossroads of global trade, a vital stop along the Incense Route, where merchants carried frankincense, myrrh, spices, and silks between southern Arabia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean. The Nabataeans, famed for their mastery of water conservation, controlled these routes, transforming AlUla into a flourishing oasis of commerce and culture. Greek, Babylonian, and Assyrian influences shaped its inscriptions; Roman artefacts left behind whispers of an empire that once reached its borders. Even today, AlUla’s ancient tombs bear the marks of this past—a palimpsest of cultures layered across millennia.