LONDON: When the American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys performed a live performance in Saudi Arabia in February, she was the newest in a sequence of worldwide stars to carry out on the spectacular mirror-walled Maraya live performance corridor in AlUla.

But it surely was the second when she was joined on stage by the Dar AlUla conventional band, for a singular efficiency of her hit “Lady on Fireplace,” that completely summed up AlUla’s quickly rising repute as a global cultural vacation spot as forward-looking as it’s firmly rooted within the historic previous.

After spending time touring the historic environment of the AlUla valley, assembly native folks and collaborating in a “Ladies to Ladies” panel on the Wadi Ashar resort, Keys gave her impressions of her go to.

“There is no such thing as a denying the wonder and enchantment of AlUla,” she mentioned. “I’ve at all times been an explorer, and I like discovering historic locations and what has been left behind of occasions lengthy gone.

“I visited a girls’s music college within the previous city and bought to see first hand the continuation of the timeless artisan traditions right here. I really feel the longer term rising in a method I used to be by no means conscious of earlier than.

“And as an artist, I really feel a way of belonging and connection — with nature, with humanity, with the magic of this particular place.”

Now Keys’ phrases have discovered their method into a brand new ebook, the publication of which represents one other landmark second within the emergence of Saudi Arabia typically, and AlUla particularly, as a world cultural vacation spot.

The ebook, “AlUla Ever,” revealed by New York-based luxurious journey and tradition publishing home Assouline, is the newest in a sequence paying homage to the world’s main journey locations.

Assouline, which focuses on high-quality books on journey, artwork, design and tradition, was based in Paris in 1994 by Prosper and Martine Assouline, and now has shops the world over, together with in Doha and Dubai.

Its newest journey ebook is in glorious firm.

The 288-page hardback tribute to AlUla, that includes greater than 200 photos, many taken by internationally famend photographers, joins a portfolio of journey books devoted to iconic locations, together with Mykonos, Lake Como, Ibiza, Miami, Gstaad and St Tropez.

Solely two different Arabian locations have thus far been featured within the sequence — “Dubai Surprise,” which was revealed in 2021, and final 12 months’s “Pink Sea: The Saudi Coast.”

“AlUla Ever” options an essay by French journalist and writer Jerome Garcin, deputy editor and head of the cultural part of the weekly French journal “L’Obs,” beforehand often known as “Le Nouvel Observateur.”

Garcin described AlUla as “a journey vacation spot not like every other, a panoramic oasis in Saudi Arabia the place historic websites are positioned in dialog with trendy progress.

“A spectacularly preserved cultural and historic masterpiece, AlUla has existed for millennia and was solely not too long ago opened to worldwide vacationers. From Outdated City to uncommon wildlife, this vacation spot affords a plethora of marvels to find.”

Garcin advised Arab Information: “I had the nice pleasure of discovering AlUla in February 2020 and was fortunate to return earlier than the French lockdown. For 2 months, once we couldn’t depart our home, I lived in AlUla’s vibrant and magical locations.

“I actually loved scripting this ebook … Every part in AlUla impressed me, however the treasure of Jabal Ikmah is what amazed me essentially the most.”

Jabal Ikmah is a mountain 5 km north of AlUla, the place historic vacationers left hundreds of inscriptions carved into the rocks, courting again to the primary millennium B.C. and written in a number of languages that predate trendy Arabic.

“All these inscriptions in lots of languages, left on the mountain by caravanners 3,000 years in the past, type a terrific poetry,” Garcin mentioned.

On the coronary heart of the AlUla valley is Hegra, an historic metropolis carved from the spectacular rocky terrain of the Hejaz by the Nabataeans, a folks whose empire of commerce dominated northwestern Saudi Arabia and past greater than 2,000 years in the past.

In 2008, Hegra, the southern capital of the individuals who constructed Petra in modern-day Jordan, turned the primary place in Saudi Arabia to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage record, as a web site of excellent common worth.

The respect got here after a long time of archaeological work that unearthed most of the secrets and techniques of the traditional metropolis and its assortment of 111 tombs, reduce out of the sandstone rocks, a lot of which function adorned facades and intricately carved inscriptions.

In addition to bearing mute testimony to the Nabataean civilization, which thrived between the second and third centuries B.C. and the primary century, within the phrases of the UNESCO nomination Hegra bears “excellent witness to necessary cultural exchanges in structure, ornament, language use and the caravan commerce.”

Though the Nabataean metropolis was deserted throughout the pre-Islamic interval, the route by means of it from north to south continued to be plied by commerce caravans after which, following the approaching of Islam, by camel trains carrying pilgrims to Makkah.

Earlier than the First World Warfare, AlUla turned a cease on the brand new Hejaz railway, which introduced pilgrims — and Ottoman troops — from Damascus to Madinah. The station, which survived a bombing raid by the British air drive throughout the warfare, is now being remodeled right into a luxurious boutique resort.

The Chedi Hegra will incorporate a number of present constructions, together with the station, an previous Ottoman fort and quite a lot of historic mud-brick partitions, that are being preserved and built-in with trendy structure.

Because the UNESCO itemizing places it, Hegra was “at a gathering level between varied civilizations of late antiquity, on a commerce route between the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean world and Asia.”

Immediately, the attractive valley is as soon as once more a gathering level for worldwide cultures, because the Royal Fee for AlUla pursues its mission to remodel it right into a “residing, open museum,” full with a singular community of museums, archaeological websites and luxurious lodges.

By 2035, AlUla is predicted to draw greater than 2 million guests a 12 months, creating 35,000 jobs for native folks and, within the course of, increase Saudi Arabia’s profile as a world-leading cultural vacation spot.

“AlUla Ever,” which measures 25×35 cm and options over 200 images and illustrations, is revealed in linen and accessible from chosen shops and thru Assouline.com for $105.