AlUla Old Town: A living time capsule
After 800 years, AlUla Old Town was abandoned in the 1980s, leaving a fascinating time capsule for historians and tourists to explore.
AlUla Old Town is one of those special places where the walls seem to speak: the presence of past peoples is so deeply embedded into the fabric of this ancient settlement that its history feels palpable to any who explore its maze of winding mudbrick alleys. Every stone, every building, every street has a story to tell and at every turn there is something to transport you back in time: it’s as if a thousand years of history just left the room.
No-one is sure when people first settled the site that grew into AlUla Old Town. The twelfth-century settlement we see today was built on an archaeological tell, an elevated area suggesting previous occupation; stone blocks built into the walls of some houses carry inscriptions dating back to the first millennium BCE and were probably recycled from the ruins of earlier Dadanite period buildings. Indeed, given its location near ancient trade routes and at the narrowest point of the lush AlUla Valley where fertile soils and accessible water make for good farming, the area may have been occupied for millennia. What is certain is that after 1200CE, Old Town emerged as a major center for travel and trade and was continuously occupied until the 1980s when the last residents moved to a new purpose-built city nearby.
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. Almost organically, houses were built onto houses, their outermost walls consciously connected to form a defensive fortification that eventually enclosed more than 900 buildings across 150 acres of urban development.
Passing through one of its defensive gates and plunging into the town itself you are immediately immersed in a labyrinth of narrow alleyways formed haphazardly by the walls of the densely packed mudbrick homes. Typically, these houses were built on two levels: downstairs were the majlis, a living room where guests were entertained, while upstairs were the kitchen and bedrooms. Livestock, such as goats, were kept beneath the stairs. About a quarter of Old Town’s homes also include an unusual floating feature—a Tayara. Literally translated as ‘airplane’, these were additional rooms built onto the upper sides of other houses and accessed by covered aerial passageways.
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. Following its twisting passageways, you inevitably arrive at one of Old Town’s market squares, each perhaps selling a different type of goods or catering to a different clientele. These must have been bustling, noisy, and colorful places packed with traders, travelers, pilgrims, and residents buying local produce and possibly more exotic luxuries. Although the golden age of AlUla’s incense route had faded before the first millennium CE, Old Town remained an important hub for international trade. Outside its walls, along the western road, foreigners would gather in an outdoor market to trade in expensive spices and incense including the coveted frankincense from southern Arabia.
But for hundreds of years, what brought most outsiders to Old Town was pilgrimage. Muslims from the west and north would pass through Old Town on their way to Makkah and Madinah, the town becoming the main stopping point on the pilgrim route through AlUla. For many Muslims, Old Town already held a powerful religious attraction: the Masjid Al-Itham or Mosque of Bones. In the sixth century, the Prophet Muhammed passed through the valley on his way to battle. Stopping to pray, he found no suitable stones to mark the qibla and so he used bones instead. To commemorate this event, the locals built the Masjid Al-Itham on the spot where Muhammed had prayed, and the restored mosque still stands in what became the southeast corner of Old Town.
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. Local farmers also depended on the movement of its shadow to designate their allocation of water from springs and wells, the clear timings helping to prevent arguments. Today, it is still a site of celebration with the Tantora Winter Festival now a major cultural attraction featuring concerts, plays, sports, and feasting.
Such spectacles have long been watched over by Old Town’s towering tenth-century stronghold, the AlUla Fort. The 150-foot outcrop on which it was built commands panoramic views across the valley, so it was probably used as a lookout since the area was first settled. Indeed, the stronghold was once called Musa Bin Nusayr Fort after an acclaimed sixth-century general who was said to have stayed there, hinting at an even earlier fortification. But around the tenth century, the outcrop was reinforced with the impressive stone walls seen today, enclosing a sizeable area complete with its own well and dominating the town that emerged around it. It remains the oldest building found in Old Town—so far.
Because today, Old Town is undergoing extensive historical study and sympathetic restoration. The south end of the site has been carefully restored by conservationists with the eco-lodge Dar Tantora Hotel offering luxurious comforts to visitors immersing themselves in the heart of old town. Revitalized as an award-winning cultural hub with local shops and eateries, its whispering walls are being encouraged to share their tales with archaeologists and historians who are peeling back the layers of its past to better understand AlUla and the people who lived here. Like the nearby heritage sites of Dadan and Hegra, AlUla Old Town has much to explore and even more to yet reveal.
Journey through time to discover the rich history of AlUla here.