AlUla, Saudi Arabia – June 2025: An immersive experience held exclusively in the ancient heritage destination of AlUla has been awarded Best Arts and Culture Event at the Middle East Event Awards 2025.
Hegra After Dark, produced in collaboration with Saudi events company ImaginExperience is an imaginative nighttime journey set in the landscape of Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This captivating event was first launched in October 2021 and has since welcomed thousands of curious guests. Inspired by historical research and brought to life through dramatic storytelling, sensory encounters and hands-on activities, Hegra After Dark reimagines the rich history of this city in creative and compelling ways.
During the over one-hour experience, visitors are led along incense-scented trails, fully surrounding them in the rich cultural legacy of the Nabataeans and the ancient Incense Road, on which AlUla was a vital stop.
From horse-drawn carriage rides to live performances and a vibrant theatrical marketplace, the experience is infused with the sights, sounds, scents, and flavours of the Nabataean era, bringing the ancient world vividly to life.
Hegra After Dark will return on 26th November 2025 and will run until 14th February 2026 with the re-launch of the annual Ancient Kingdoms Festival, which returns this year from 20th November until 7th December, 2025. The event is one of many authentically crafted tours and experiences in AlUla designed for discerning travellers seeking deeply immersive, culturally rich and meaningful encounters.
About AlUla:
Located 1,100 km from Riyadh, in North-West Saudi Arabia, AlUla is a place of extraordinary natural and human heritage. The vast area, covering 22,561km², includes a lush oasis valley, towering sandstone mountains and ancient cultural heritage sites dating back thousands of years to when the Lihyan and Nabataean kingdoms reigned.
The most well-known and recognised site in AlUla is Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. A 52-hectare ancient city, Hegra was the principal southern city of the Nabataean Kingdom and is comprised of over 140 well-preserved tombs, many with elaborate facades cut out of the sandstone outcrops surrounding the walled urban settlement.
Current research also suggests Hegra was the most southern outpost of the Roman Empire after the Roman’s conquered the Nabataeans in 106 CE.
In addition to Hegra, AlUla is also home to ancient Dadan, the capital of the Dadan and Lihyan Kingdoms and considered to be one of the most developed 1st millennium BCE cities of the Arabian Peninsula, and Jabal Ikmah, an open-air library of hundreds of inscriptions and writings in many different languages, which has been recently listed on the UNESCO’s memory of the World Register. Also, AlUla Old Town Village, a labyrinth of more than 900 mudbrick homes developed from at least the 12th century, which has been selected as one of the World’s Best Tourism Villages in 2022 by the UNWTO.