Shifting SANDS

A few years ago, while indulging my habit of reading about places that are seemingly impossible to visit, I learned about the ancient Nabataean city of Hegra, whose rock-cut tombs pepper a remote plain in the Arabian Desert. It was a place barely anyone had ever seen or even heard of, despite its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008. I wondered how its monumental beauty had escaped global attention.

But then, this was Saudi Arabia, a country that, at the time, wasn’t exactly eager to welcome tourists. Fast forward to 2019 and all of that changed with the introduction of the kingdom’s first tourist visas and a much-touted opening of borders that allowed visitors to catch a glimpse behind the veil of this mysterious and long off-limits land. It was a pivotal milestone in the rollout of Vision 2030, a bold blueprint for diversifying the Saudi economy and fostering cultural exchange with other nations. Then came Covid-19, and the doors closed again. But this past August the borders reopened to fully vaccinated travelers, and I decided to go and finally see for myself the tombs that had fascinated me for so long.

I caught my first glimpse of Hegra from the back of an open-top Land Rover as I bounced over soft sands with Amal