Al-Hijr Archaeological Site Madâin Sâlih in Saudi Arabia

The Archaeological Site of Al-Hijr (Madâin Sâlih) is the first UNESCO World Heritage property to be inscribed in Saudi Arabia. Formerly known as Hegra it is the largest conserved site of the civilization of the Nabataeans south of Petra in Jordan.

Al-Hijr is a major site of the Nabataean civilisation, in the south of its zone of influence.

The Nabataeans were an ancient Semitic people, Arabs of southern Jordan, Canaan and the northern part of Arabia.

Their oasis settlements in the time of Josephus gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Syria and Arabia, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea.