The Nabataeans were brilliant traders who lived along ancient caravan routes. Travelling merchants on camels passed through AlUla carrying frankincense, spices, silks and gold. The Nabataeans grew rich by looking after the wells, gardens and stopping points along the way.
Instead of stacking up bricks, the Nabataeans carved their buildings out of solid stone cliffs. Workers stood on wooden platforms and chipped the sandstone away from the top down, slowly shaping doorways, columns and decorations. The stone is a warm orange-pink, and at sunset the whole valley glows.
AlUla is also full of date palm gardens, lemon and orange trees, and natural springs. For thousands of years, families have grown food in this green strip of land while the desert stretches on either side. Today many of those farms are still running.
Scientists and archaeologists are still discovering new things in AlUla. Recently they found ancient rock carvings of camels that are over 7,000 years old - older than the pyramids of Egypt. There is also a giant rock called Elephant Rock that the wind has slowly shaped to look exactly like an elephant.