THE FUSE

Since Saudi Arabia’s comprehensive Vision 2030 development project launched in 2017, the quaint yet historically significant desert town of AlUla has emerged as an important cultural hub for the rapidly “opening-up”
kingdom. Nestled amid soaring wind-formed limestone cliffs, the verdant date-palm oasis was once a stop-over for muslim pilgrims heading south toward the holy cities and before that, incense traders from southern Arabia traveling north to the Fertile Crescent. The well-preserved adobe-style settlement here dates back 900 years. The iconic Hegra tombs nearby—erected by the same civilizations as Petra—are at least 2100 years old.