Asia

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After finding out that Hegra (Madain Saleh) is closed, we drive around the surroundings of Al Ula and, after a good lunch, decide to visit the old town of this ancient city. Alas, even the old town turns out to be closed for visitors. A country wanting to open up for tourism, and clearly having to find out how to deal with people interested to see it. By now, we are so frustrated that we park our car in a side street opposite the old town, and walk along the edge of it. We see the promontory of Umm Nasir rising above the old town. Unlike Hegra, there is no fence here. At one point, with no one around, we walk down into one of the dusty streets, and quickly disappear in the maze of streets. We frequently stop in the silence of these hundreds years old ruins of houses and alleys. Palm tree trunks support the ceilings, are rotting away. Many ceilings are gone anyway.
The lower part of the houses are made of stones quarried at Jebel Khuraybah, on the other side of the valley, while the upper floor is made of mud bricks. In some parts we discover wall paintings as decorations. There are frail wooden doors, forever open because of a load of rubbish holding them in place. Some houses are almost gone, while others still seem quite intact. Above us, we see the blue sky, and sometimes, in an alley running east-west, we see the mountain slope defining the east of Al Ula; otherwise, there is little to orient ourselves on. Then, we find ourselves at the foot of Jebel Umm Nasir, and climb up a rocky outcrop which offers views over the old town, which turns out to continue further south. This was a sizeable town with more than a thousand houses.
It is time to climb the promontory, Umm Nasir, and explore the fort on top of it, Musa ibn Nusayr. It has been restored in 2009 and is now easy to climb. The walls of the fort cover the entire top of the outcrop, and there are holes in them on all sides to observe the surroundings for possible enemies. We use them to see where the guy at the entrance is, and see him on a chair where we talked with him before. The views around are splendid: not only the old town, but also the ruins of farms across the road, the palm trees in the valley, and the massive mountains rising sharply from the valley floor. When the sun is gone, we descend, and walk to the part of the old town we have not seen yet, which turns out to be more developed and where we see a restored mosque, the mosque of the bones, so named because according to legend, prophet Muhammed prayed here, using a bone as the mihrab indicating the direction of Mecca. When we walk out through the main entrance, it seems our friend at the entrance cannot believe his eyes. We thank him and wish him a good evening.

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Al Ula old town (Saudi Arabia)

Al Ula old town > Saudi Arabia > Asia

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Around the World in 80 Clicks