Al Ula

Thu 3/7/25

We took an optional tour with Rayhar to Al Ula for SAR 400 per person, which includes bus transportation from Madinah, entry ticket, lunch, and dinner . Al Ula is located about 365km from Madinah. We made a day trip from our hotel Dallah Taibah in Madinah, departing at 10.30am. The tour included the ticket to Madain Salih, a Unesco Heritage Site  with entry at 4.30pm, to avoid the peak of summer heat at the dry and arid environment of the desert. The tour would take about 2 hours at the site.

Madain Saleh is also known as Al-Hijr, or Hegra, which was the settlement of the Thamud people, or  Nabateans; which are the same people of Petra, Jordan. It is the Nabateans' second largest city after Petra, Jordan, its capital city. Petra is located about 545km away from Madain Saleh. The current site now has more than a hundred tombs, carved into sandstone outcrops.

The Quran describes how the Thamud disobeyed their prophet Salih, and killed a miraculous she-camel sent as a sign by God. Consequently, God's wrath and punishment befell them.

We arrived at a nearby town, Al Ula at 3pm to have lunch of chicken mandy rice at a restaurant. We could see the unique rock formations landscape at Al Ula .

chicken mandy rice

At Hegra, a bus would bring visitors to 4 sites. Visitors could go down at each site and were given about 30 minutes at each site with a guide giving an explanation. The 4 sites are Al Diwan (hall), Tomb of Hinat daughter of Wahbu ,  Tomb of Lihyan son of Kuza and Jabal Al Ahmar. 

tomb at Hegra

tomb at Hegra

unique rock formations

Next to Jabal AlAhmar is a rock formation that resembles a human head gazing out over the desert landscape.

unique rock formation at Al ula

We then departed to the Elephant Rock or Jabal Al Fil, sandstone rock shaped like an elephant, located about 30 minutes away to view the sunset. 

Elephant Rock

sunset at Elephant Rock

Elephant rock at night

From Elephant Rock, we were then brought to Al Ula Old Town Market Street where the mudbrick houses has been turned into cafes, souvenir and handicraft shops. We were transported via electric bus from the parking to the market street. We didn't buy anything here but we did try a sample of the arabic coffee at the information centre.

Al Ula Old Town Market Street

Lastly, we brought to a restaurant for late night dinner at 10pm at the Al Ula Heritage Restaurant & Kitchen. We shared a dish with 8 people from out tour, served in 2 big round trays with mixture of meat, rice and pasta. 

mixture of meat, rice and pasta

We finally departed from Al Ula at 11pm and reached back to our hotel in Madinah at almost 4am in the morning.