Heritage Journeys

Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest conserved site of the Nabataean civilisation south of Petra. Over 110 monumental rock-cut tombs stand across the desert plain, their facades carved with an precision that has survived two millennia of wind and sand. Private sunset access allows you to witness the sandstone glow in the same light the Nabataean stonemasons worked by, while archaeologist guides decode the inscriptions, trade symbols, and burial traditions that reveal how this ancient civilisation lived, traded, and honoured their dead.

Long before the Nabataeans arrived, the kingdoms of Dadan and Lihyan ruled this valley for over a thousand years — one of the most significant Bronze and Iron Age civilisations on the Arabian Peninsula. The remains of their capital sit beneath towering red cliffs, with lion-guarded tombs carved high into the rock face above. Nearby Jabal Ikmah — an open-air library of ancient inscriptions in Dadanitic, Thamudic, Minaic, and Nabataean scripts — offers a window into the languages, faiths, and daily life of peoples who thrived here three thousand years ago. AlUla Old Town, with its labyrinth of 900 mudbrick houses, connects the ancient story to more recent centuries of oasis life.

The UNESCO-listed mud-brick district of At-Turaif sits on the edge of Wadi Hanifah, where the modern Saudi state was founded in the 18th century. Its restored Najdi palaces — with their distinctive geometric ornamentation and thick earthen walls — represent one of the finest examples of Arabian mud-brick architecture anywhere. Today, the surrounding Bujairi Terrace has become a gathering place where history and contemporary Saudi culture meet, offering a rare chance to understand how a nation's identity was shaped by a single district's story.

For four centuries, Jeddah's historic merchant quarter served as the gateway between the Red Sea trade routes and the Arabian interior. Its coral-stone townhouses — some rising five storeys high, adorned with carved wooden rawasheen balconies — were built by merchant families whose wealth came from spices, textiles, and pearls. Walking the narrow alleyways of Al-Balad today, past spice souqs and centuries-old mosques, is to move through a living record of how global trade shaped Arabian urban life. UNESCO listed the district in recognition of its outstanding architectural and cultural legacy.

The ancient trade routes that carried frankincense, myrrh, and spices from southern Arabia to the Mediterranean world passed directly through the sites on every Nia Travels heritage journey. Understanding this network — how it connected Dadan to Petra, how it brought Nabataean influence south into the Hejaz, how it made AlUla a crossroads of civilisations for millennia — transforms individual site visits into a coherent narrative. Our journeys are designed to follow these connections, revealing how each ancient city, each carved tomb, each inscription is part of a single extraordinary story of trade, movement, and cultural exchange across the ancient world.

Every Nia Travels heritage journey is shaped by the people who bring the sites to life. Archaeologist guides who have worked the excavations share insights no guidebook contains. Private sunrise and sunset access to key sites ensures the most atmospheric conditions and the fewest crowds. Curated cultural encounters — from traditional Hejazi cuisine prepared by local families to Arabic coffee ceremonies and visits to working artisan workshops — connect the ancient heritage to the living culture that has grown from it. These are not add-ons; they are the fabric of the journey itself.