AlUla campaign reveals details of over 19,000 ancient rock carvings

The Royal Commission for AlUla has launched its “AlUla Heritage” awareness campaign across its social media platforms, running until the end of this year. The initiative aims to showcase the results of archaeological studies and surveys that have documented around 19,802 rock art panels, featuring more than 66,000 animal depictions and over 11,000 human figures. These findings record more than 12,000 years of human history, illustrating daily life, transformations, and the relationship between people, animals, and their environment. The project has created the largest indexed regional database of rock art in the Arabian Peninsula.

The campaign also highlights the scientific methods and efforts of archaeologists and AlUla residents in dating the rock carvings and distinguishing between the oldest and most recent inscriptions. This process includes on-foot site surveys, photographing, drawing, describing, and precisely recording the coordinates of each carving.

Researchers study the layering of images, artistic techniques, depicted subjects, and associated inscriptions. They also analyze a gradually forming dark patina known as “rock varnish” to help differentiate between older and newer carvings.

The campaign covers ten main themes: rock art as a historical record; evidence of hunting and herding; environmental and climate changes; AlUla as a hub for trade and communication; archaeological survey and documentation efforts; chariots as symbols of status and power; locally extinct animals; oasis sustainability and herd ownership; horsemanship, conflict, and survival; and the continuity of rock art expression.

The surveyed rock carvings document shifts in human lifestyles and relationships with animals, from scenes of hunting ibex, oryx, and ostriches with bows, arrows, and dogs, to cattle breeding, herding cows and camels, and caring for young animals. The presence of animals in AlUla over millennia was closely linked to water and vegetation. The carvings depict wild cattle, African wild asses, kudu, as well as ibex and wild camels, helping researchers trace environmental changes in the region—from wetter periods with abundant pastures to the onset of aridity and changes in human settlement and land use.

The carvings also reveal the role of water in sustaining herding and the significance of geometric patterns. As surrounding areas became drier, AlUla Valley remained a refuge with water, oases, and vegetation. The rock art shows that cattle continued to inhabit the region during the Iron Age and pre-Islamic periods, even as depictions of cattle became rare elsewhere in northern Saudi Arabia.

Researchers have used the carvings and animal images to interpret the environmental and climatic record. Realistic carvings, sometimes life-sized or nearly so, depict animals that later disappeared from the region, such as the aurochs, African wild ass, and lesser kudu.

These carvings have helped scholars understand the humid phase of the Holocene, roughly between 8000 and 4000 BCE, when pastures and lakes were widespread in parts of northern Arabia.

Scenes of battles and humans defending themselves and their herds from predators are also present in the rock art. AlUla’s rocks preserve images of horsemanship, combat, and the struggle for survival.

Archaeological surveys have recorded 14,670 carved images of horses with riders, as well as 1,375 battle scenes. There are also 180 depictions of conflicts with carnivores, showing lions, leopards, cheetahs, and hyenas attacking people or livestock, or individuals protecting their herds and hunting predators.

Caravans were depicted on AlUla’s rocks long before trade routes were mapped, with carvings likely showing camel and horse caravans, riders, litters, and chariots, alongside scenes of travel and combat. This reflects AlUla’s role as a crossroads and center for communication between communities. With abundant water and flourishing oases, AlUla became a key stop on regional trade networks, linked to ancient urban centers such as Dadan, Hegra, Qurh, and Umm Hadm, with traces of routes and travelers attesting to its historical significance.

The prevalence of chariot carvings highlights their social and cultural significance, serving as markers of status and influence thousands of years ago. Archaeological surveys documented 38 chariot carvings, including 25 in Wadi Al-Na’am, possibly one of the highest concentrations of chariot rock art in Arabia. These chariots were likely not used for long-distance travel, but rather within oases and by people of high status.

Rock art in AlUla is not limited to ancient times; it continued to record details of life and its changes into the recent past. Alongside images of camels, horses, and caravans, the rocks also feature depictions of coffee pots, tents, carpets, utensils, and later, cars and trucks.

Archaeological surveys have documented 395 carved images of motor vehicles, reflecting the ongoing use of rocks as a medium for expression and recording the tools of each era. AlUla’s rocks remain an open archive, preserving the evolution of life, carving by carving.