By Osama Wade'
RIYADH, June 12 (KUNA) -- The Archaeological Site of Al-Hijr (Madain Salih), the first UNESCO-inscribed World Heritage property in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, receives growing numbers of visitors from inside and outside the Kingdom as its rehabilitation process is in the offing.
The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) said the rehabilitation process includes launching a tourist reception center, a museum at Al-Hijaz railway station and new corridors and the refurbishment of the Islamic citadel.
Work is underway to give a facelift to the 16 buildings of the railway station, and open a hotel, gift selling shops, restaurants, a management center, a medical center, a reception center for foreign scientific missions, and other leisure facilities at the site, SCTA said in a statement to KUNA.
The rehabilitation process covers the infrastructure of a total of 120 archaeological sites in the Kingdom and meets the UNESCO standards.
Located 22 kilometers to the north of the Al-Ula city and nearly 380 kilometers to north of Al-Madinah, the site of Al-Hijr represents a convergence point of various civilizations on a trade route linking the Arabian Peninsula to the Levant, the Mediterranean region and Asia.
Formerly known as Hegra it is the largest conserved site of the civilization of the Nabataeans south of Petra in Jordan. It features well-preserved monumental tombs with decorated facades dating from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. The site also features some 50 inscriptions of the pre-Nabataean period and some cave drawings. Al-Hijr bears a unique testimony to Nabataean civilization. With its 111 monumental tombs, 94 of which are decorated, and water wells, the site is an outstanding example of the Nabataeans' architectural accomplishment and hydraulic expertise.
The site includes a major ensemble of tombs and monuments, whose architecture and decorations are directly cut into the sandstone.
It bears witness to the encounter between a variety of decorative and architectural influences (Assyrian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Hellenistic), and the epigraphic presence of several ancient languages (Lihyanite, Thamudic, Nabataean, Greek, Latin).
It bears witness to the development of Nabataean agricultural techniques using a large number of artificial wells in rocky ground. The wells are still in use.
The site was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2008.
In 2001 the Saudi Ministry of Antiquities and Museums and King Saud University in Riyadh, on one hand, and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), on the other, signed an agreement to study and rehabilitate the site.
The agreement, renewed in 2006, favors use of non-destructive methods such as aerial photography, geophysical analysis, architectural study and systematic inventory. (end) od.gb