Hegra
— — Petra's quiet southern sister, half-buried in sand.
Not only on a wall.
“A Nabataean necropolis cut into sandstone outcrops in the desert north of Medina. Hegra is Petra's southern sister, carved by the same hands between the first century BC and the first century AD. It sat closed to outside visitors for most of the twentieth century. Today the road in from AlUla is paved and the tombs stand alone in the wind.
Hegra, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Hegra, also called Mada'in Salih, lies in the AlUla Governorate of northwest Saudi Arabia, about 320 kilometres north of Medina. The site contains 111 monumental tombs carved into sandstone outcrops by the Nabataeans between the first century BC and the first century AD. Ninety-four of the tombs carry decorated facades. UNESCO inscribed Hegra as Saudi Arabia's first World Heritage site in 2008. The Royal Commission for AlUla reopened the area to international visitors in 2020 after decades of restricted access, and a small commercial airport now connects AlUla to Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dubai.
The tombs are cut from Cretaceous sandstone outcrops that rise from the desert floor like weathered ships. Each facade follows a Nabataean pattern of crowstep, eagle, and rosette ornament, with inscriptions in Nabataean Aramaic naming the family that commissioned the tomb. The most photographed monument is Qasr al-Farid, a single tomb carved into a freestanding boulder, unfinished at the base. Wind and rare rainfall have softened the carving over two thousand years; the lower courses are visibly eroded where the sandstone meets the sand.
Visits are arranged through Experience AlUla, the agency run by the Royal Commission for AlUla. Entry is timed and ticketed, with guided tours that loop the four main tomb clusters and the Jabal Ithlib ritual area. The site sits about twenty-two kilometres north of AlUla town, which has an international airport with direct flights from Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dubai. Best months are November through March, when daytime temperatures stay below thirty Celsius. Photography is permitted on the standard tours; drones require advance authorisation.