On October 14th we went site seeing and walked through Al Ula's history. After a really tasty breakfast, we started with Hegra (Mada'in Salih), tombs built by the Nabataeans. It is a cousin of Petra. We almost didn't see Hegra because both the driver and the travel agent gave us the wrong time to show up and we missed the bus. The result was that we were there at the hottest time of the day and had exactly 15 minutes to eat a huge lunch at a date farm. A shame because it was a wonderful lunch which included a tasty avocado drink.
After lunch we saw Dadan which was older than Hegra. It was capital of the Dadan and Lihyan kingdoms. It dates back between the late 9th and early 8th century BCE (Kingdom of Dadan) and 5th–2nd century BCE (Kingdom of Lihyan). Unfortunately, we had to stay well back away from the tombs and other areas which were still being excavated. And it was even hotter (42?).
Then we went to a wonderful place called Jabel AlBanat which is an "open library" where ancient travellers wrote about their journeys on the rocks - both words and pictographs.
Finally, we went back to the old town of Al Ula and walked down the main street through the ruins where the locals were trying to set up a tourist area of shops and restaurants which weren't quite ready yet.
Then back to the hotel for a mediocre dinner (breakfast was much more interesting and tasty) and bed.
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