Madain Saleh & Al-Ula مدائن صالح

Mada'in Saleh (Arabic: مدائن صالح, madāʼin Ṣāliḥ), also called Al-Hijr or Hegra (so in Greek and Latin, e.g. by Pliny [1]), is a pre-Islamic archaeological site located in the Al-Ula sector, within the Al Madinah Region of Saudi Arabia.[2] A majority of the vestiges date from the Nabatean kingdom (1st century CE).[3] The site constitutes the kingdom's southernmost and largest settlement after Petra, its capital.[4][5] Traces of Lihyanite and Roman occupation before and after the Nabatean rule, respectively, can also be found in situ,[5] while accounts from the Qur'an tell of an earlier settlement of the area by the tribe of Thamud in the 3rd millennium BC.[6]
According to the Islamic text, Allah punished the Thamudis for their persistent practice of idol worship and for conspiring to kill the prophet whom He sent, the non-believers being struck by an earthquake and lightning blasts.[7] Thus, the site has earned a superstitious reputation down to contemporary times as a cursed place[2]— an image which the national government is attempting to overcome as it seeks to develop Mada'in Saleh, officially protected as an archaeological site since 1972, for its tourism potential.[2][7]
In 2008, for its well-preserved remains from late antiquity, especially the 131 rock-cut monumental tombs, with their elaborately ornamented façades, of the Nabatean kingdom,[8] UNESCO proclaimed Mada'in Saleh as a site of patrimony, becoming Saudi Arabia's first World Heritage Site.[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mada'...

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