A visit to AlUla offers travellers a chance to embark on an authentic and inspiring journey, taking you back in time and surrounding you with ancient natural and man-made wonders that inspire a sense of discovery. You will also be left in awe by the region’s more recent architectural marvels, which seamlessly blend with their surroundings, encapsulating and reflecting the land’s unadulterated beauty and history.

At the centre of it all is AlUla's Old Town, nestled in the narrowest stretch of AlUla valley and shadowed by the AlUla Fort, a 45-metre-high red sandstone structure. This ancient settlement dates back to the 12th century and was once situated on historic trade routes, welcoming pilgrims and sparking agricultural innovations that have sculpted the county’s rich identity over the centuries.

Old Town’s architecture, crafted from materials such as mudbrick, date palm wood, and stone blocks, stands as a testament to the artistry of the ancients. The town features an interconnected labyrinth of alleyways, with over 900 identified properties, and five town squares or rahbas, offering a glimpse into a community that was designed with fortification in mind.

Another architectural wonder that has quickly become an iconic landmark is Maraya, the magnificently mirrored structure in AlUla’s Ashar Valley that seems to disappear into the surrounding sandstone cliffs. A multi-purpose venue for concerts, events and conferences, Maraya — meaning ‘mirror’ in Arabic — is the largest mirrored building in the world and is a piece of art in itself. It is made up of 9,740 square meters or 3,000 panes of specially tempered glass mirrors that clad the cube-shaped structure.

Architect Florian Boje of Milan-based architecture studio Gio Forma, who designed the structure, intended for Maraya’s reflections to give a deep sense of the connection of human heritage with nature.