What is the Ancient Kingdoms Festival, the newest addition to AlUla Moments?

The event unpacks the history of the significant cities that formed Saudi Arabia

An image of the Unesco Heritage site Hegra at night by Gilles Bensimon. The fashion photographer has captured AlUla in a new book titled 'A Dream of AlUla'. All photos: Gilles Bensimon

The 215-page book celebrates the history of AlUla.

Bensimon gives readers a glimpse into the little-known geological wonder through his photography.

Red sandstone natural formations and Jabal Alfil (Elephant Rock).

The book shows the magnificence of AlUla's landscape from lush green oasis, vast expanses and drifting sand to basalt uplands.

Bensimon is the former international creative director of Elle Magazine.

The photographer has worked with models and celebrities including Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Madonna and Elle Macpherson.

Published by Rizzoli New York, the book features a foreword by French art historian Diana Picasso.

'A Dream of AlUla' is on sale now.

The people of AlUla also feature in the book.

AlUla is home to the Unesco world heritage site, Hegra, where exceptionally preserved tombs of the Nabataean age show elaborate facades cut out of sandstone outcrops.

Located on the ancient Incense Route, AlUla has been described as a living museum with a history that features Lihyanite, Dadanite, Nabataean, and Pre-Islamic times.

Millennia-old inscriptions at AlUla.

Some photos are captured in black in white while others are in colour.

A new festival has been added to AlUla Moments, the annual initiative transforming the ancient desert city in Saudi Arabia with art, music, food and wellness.

Running from November 11 to 27, the Ancient Kingdoms Festival will focus on three interconnected, historic oases — namely AlUla, Khaybar and Tayma. The event will explore the history of these cities, showing how they served as crossroads for explorers, artisans and intellectuals for millennia.

A dense ‘funerary avenue’ flanked by Bronze Age tombs, leading out of a wadi near Khaybar in north-west Saudi Arabia.

The AlUla region is located more than 1,000km from Riyadh. Historically, it lay on the incense trade route, a land and sea network spanning the Mediterranean, north-eastern Africa, Arabia and India.

The region surrounding the walled city of AlUla, established in around the 6th century BC, hosts remnants of civilisations dating back more than 7,000 years.

The city of Hegra, the second-biggest Nabataean city after Petra, is located in AlUla and marks the first Unesco World Heritage Site in Saudi Arabia. Dating back to the 1st century BC, it served as the southern capital of the Nabataean kingdom, believed to have stretched from Yemen to Damascus and western Iraq to the Sinai Desert.

A new Guinness World Record for largest hot air balloon glow show was set in the area in March — with a show of 142 brightly-lit balloons taking to the skies.

The Guinness World Record for the world’s largest hot air balloon glow show was broken in AlUla, Saudi Arabia on March 1, 2022. All photos: Guinness World Records

As part of AlUla Moments, the record was broken on March 1 with a show of 142 brightly-lit hot air balloons taking to the skies near Hegra.

The colourful display took place in the Unesco World Heritage Site in the early hours of the morning.

The record was previously set in AlUla in 2019 with a show of 100 hot air balloons during the Winter at Tantora festival.

The glow show was part of AlUla Skies, a new festival which includes sunrise and sunset hot air balloon experiences that feature around 150 balloons floating over the ancient site daily.

The display marked the Royal Commission for AlUla and Saudi Arabian Ballooning Federation's announcement that AlUla has been named "the capital city of hot air ballooning activities" in Saudi Arabia.

A colourful display of hot air balloons in AlUla.

A hot air balloon soaring in Hegra.

Other historical sites in the area include the stone city of Dadan, the capital of the Dadan and Lihyan kingdoms; AlUla Old Town; and Jabal Ikmah, a mountain inscribed with pre-Arabic texts, described as an open-air library.

The Ancient Kingdoms Festival will unpack the historical significance of these sites — becoming the third to take place in the 2022 AlUla calendar.

AlUla will first host the returning Azimuth Festival on the weekend of Saudi National Day. The three-day event will take place from September 22 to 24 and feature regional and global entertainers, artists and chefs. The festival will include performances and artworks exhibited around the heritage sites in AlUla and chefs adding fresh takes on Saudi cuisine. The line-up is yet to be revealed.

The Wellness Festival will then follow from September 29 to October 16. The event, which was inaugurated in March, will take place in a spa, fitness and wellness centre called the Five Senses Sanctuary.

After the Ancient Kingdoms Festival, Winter at Tantora will be returning from December 21 to January 21, the event concludes the AlUla Moments calendar with intimate performances by internationally acclaimed musicians, as well as a series of events in theatre, fashion and arts.