Nestling beneath the valley’s towering red sandstone cliffs, the desiccated remains of AlUla Old Town appear to have grown organically out of the desert landscape. Exploring this unique and culturally important site brings fascinating insights into the desert life of Arabia.
Seen from above, AlUla Old Town seems tiny, squeezed against the valley’s sheer sandstone cliffs with great waves of green date palms lapping at its perimeter. AlUla embraced irrigated agriculture during the first millennium BCE, and alongside Old Town’s many wells there is also evidence of qanats. These gravity-fed underground irrigation channels are a testament to ancient ingenuity and helped keep Old Town’s fields productive, enabling its population to grow. And grow it did.
Plunging into Old Town’s maze of narrow, shaded streets, the sense of history becomes palpable with every turn of its well-worn passageways revealing new sights and promising new stories.Stepping out into the streets, you can clearly see the layers of history where buildings have been built out of or into each other as the town regenerated itself over the centuries.
Not far away is another of Old Town’s unique historical treasures—the Tantora sundial. Nobody is sure when the sundial was built, an obelisk atop an otherwise unremarkable wall that casts a shadow onto the ground. But for hundreds of years, residents and visitors flocked to this small square to celebrate its marking the passage of the seasons, and especially the start of the winter growing season.
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