Luxury publisher Assouline has released a new travel book on Saudi Arabia’s ancient oasis city.
AlUla Ever, available across the GCC as of Thursday, is the latest addition to Assouline’s Travel Series.
Written by French journalist Jerome Garcin, the book is designed to give readers a front-row seat to AlUla’s palm-lined oases, Unesco-listed treasures and desert-surrounded abodes. A vast collection of original photographs in the book showcase the destination’s rock-strewn landscapes and dune-filled vistas.
There’s also a focus on AlUla’s vibrant arts and culture scene, including dazzling images of Maraya Concert Hall, the world’s largest mirrored building.
A fusion of old and new, AlUla is a luxury destination where culture and history combine with modernity and innovation. Having only recently opened to international visitors, the ancient region spans some 200,000 years of human history. This new book gives travellers the chance to see what’s in store in the district that is part of north-western Saudi Arabia’s Madinah province.
Tracing the sands of time over each civilisation that has touched this place, the book highlights several of AlUla’s well-preserved monuments that will appeal to history-seeking travellers.
It highlights Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first Unesco World Heritage Site, and Jabal Ikmah, the world’s largest open-air library that’s filled with hundreds of centuries-old inscriptions, carved on to golden stone. The site was recently inscribed on Unesco's Memory of the World list.
AlUla Old Town also stars in the book. Consisting of a labyrinth of narrow streets lined with mud-brick buildings that were inhabited from around the 12th century until the 1980s, the town has been carefully preserved, restored and renovated, and now welcomes travellers to visit.
