Unesco: 8 heritage sites in the Middle East you should know about middleeasteye.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from middleeasteye.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Saudi Arabia wants to triple its tourism receipts by 2030
Credit: Getty
If you have been flicking the channels in the recent weeks of lockdown, you may have noticed it. The advert that seeks to draw viewers to a Middle Eastern destination. There are hints of Jordan to its desert vistas – and enticing footage where the sea washes on to a sandy shore. Then comes the last line – in gentle voice-over. “Welcome to Arabia,” it says.
This, of course, is Saudi Arabia – a place that, even by the surreal standards of 2020 and 2021, is an unusual candidate to be soft-selling itself as a touchy-feely holiday option. In some ways, it needs no introduction – but in others, it certainly does.
By Samantha Pires on January 14, 2021
Photo: Stock Photos from Cube And Live/Shutterstock
If you are looking for a truly unique tourist destination, look no further than this ancient desert city. Hegra, or Mada’in Salih, is an archaeological site in AIUIa, a city in north-western Saudi Arabia. For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, this incredible city is opening for the public.
David Graf, an archaeologist of the ancient Near East and professor at the University of Miami explains what it is like to visit Hegra and shares his hopes for visitors’ experiences: “It should evoke in any good tourist with any kind of intellectual curiosity: who produced these tombs? Who are the people who created Hegra? Where did they come from? How long were they here? To have the context of Hegra is very important.” However, these questions are not so easily answered.
Saturday 12th December, 2020
Saudi Arabia, the oil-mining, journalist arresting Middle Eastern country that is attempting to rid itself of a negative global image to become a new tourist hotspot, has just revealed its latest in a line of must-visit attractions that finds itself in the most unlikely of places.
As reported by
CNN Travel, Saudi Arabia plans to build a new hotel into a huge expanse of sandstone, a stone’s throw from the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Hegra (Mada’in Salih), in the country’s North West.
Taking a leaf out of Santorini’s book and resembling something that wouldn’t look out of place in the
Saudi Arabia Continues Global Image Shift With Luxurious Hidden Hotel dmarge.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dmarge.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.