Jabal Ikmah is a narrow sandstone canyon north of AlUla town whose walls carry hundreds of inscriptions and petroglyphs in Dadanitic, Thamudic, Minaic and Nabataean script, so dense that Experience AlUla calls it AlUla's open-air library; the inscriptions were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2023. Dadan, a ten-minute drive away, was the capital of the kingdoms of Dadan and Lihyan on the Incense Road before the Nabataeans, and is known for the Lion Tombs cut high into its red cliffs. You cannot drive into either site: both are visited together on one official tour, by bus or private 4x4, booked through the Experience AlUla platform and lasting about two hours, and their natural place is the morning of day two, after Hegra (Mada'in Salih). CHAPTERS journeys put this tour in the heritage day with transport, an accompanying guide and your stay.
Jabal Ikmah and Dadan are neighboring archaeological sites north of AlUla, visited together on a single official tour booked in advance through Experience AlUla and lasting about two hours: Dadan first, then a ten-minute drive to Jabal Ikmah. Place them on the morning of day two after Hegra, and book before you travel because few tours run each day.
This article is part of the complete AlUla guide. Start there for season, transport and the other landmarks.
Jabal Ikmah is not a mountain you climb but a narrow sandstone canyon whose walls close in until they form a passage, and on those walls travelers, pilgrims and traders carved hundreds of inscriptions and petroglyphs over the centuries. Experience AlUla describes it as AlUla's open-air library and the largest concentration of ancient inscriptions in the region, a sacred place and a crossroads for travelers since at least the first millennium BCE.
What is written on the rock? According to the official feature on rock art and inscriptions in AlUla, pilgrims and traders bookmarked their journeys here: dedications to loved ones, blessings for abundant crops, prayers for good health, and glimpses of the everyday lives of ordinary working people. Alongside the writing are carvings of daily life, musical instruments and animals.
What makes Jabal Ikmah exceptional is the number of languages and scripts in one place: the official page names Dadanitic, Thamudic, Minaic and Nabataean, and describes the site as showing how languages evolved from the first millennium BCE. You are not looking at a single beautiful inscription but at layers of language succeeding one another on the same rock, from the tongue of Dadan's people to that of the Nabataeans who later built Hegra.
That is why the inscriptions of Jabal Ikmah were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2023, as Experience AlUla records. It is a different listing from the World Heritage List on which Hegra was inscribed: Memory of the World is UNESCO's register of documentary heritage, while the World Heritage List is for sites. AlUla now has a site on the list and inscriptions in the register.
Dadan is an ancient city in the heart of the AlUla valley, and Experience AlUla calls its discovery one of the most important in AlUla: the capital of the kingdoms of Dadan and Lihyan more than 2,000 years ago, and a thriving hub on the Incense Road, along which caravans carried frankincense from southern Arabia to the temples of ancient Egypt and Greece. Merchants paid for passage, and that is where the city's wealth came from.
The official history feature dates the kingdom of Dadan to roughly 900 to 600 BCE and calls it one of the most developed kingdoms in northwest Arabia at the time: abundant water, fertile soil and irrigated fields of cereals, fruit and dates, on a site occupied since the Bronze Age. Then came the Lihyanites, who may have taken over from the Dadanites or may be an evolution of the same civilization, and under whom the profits of the incense trade grew. The official pages give no precise date for the end of Lihyan; what we know is that the Nabataeans appeared in AlUla in the first century BCE and became the dominant power.
In Dadan's Great Sanctuary, dedicated to the Lihyanite deity Dhu Ghabat, at least 15 colossal statues were found, one of them originally about 2.7 meters tall, lying collapsed and many of them without heads, hands or feet, in a way that suggests deliberate damage rather than an earthquake. Over five years of work, Saudi archaeologists and international partners recovered more than 100 artifacts: metalwork, spinning tools, carved statues, incense burners, fragments of monumental inscriptions, a bone hairpin from the Roman or Byzantine era and a Greek-style terracotta head. All of this is told in the Illuminating Discoveries exhibition inside the site, as the next section explains.
Why does this matter to a visitor? Because Dadan and Jabal Ikmah are the valley's oldest layer, the one before the Nabataeans. See them after Hegra and you understand that Hegra did not appear from nothing: it inherited a city, a road and centuries of writing on rock.
The official tour begins at Dadan and ends at Jabal Ikmah, in the same order by bus and by private vehicle. The stops as Experience AlUla describes them:
Parts of either site may close at short notice for conservation work or weather, as the official platform states, and excavation at Dadan is ongoing. Promise yourself the site, not a particular panel.
The visit is not a gate ticket but an organized tour, because self-driving inside the two sites is not permitted. Tours are sold through the Experience AlUla platform of the Royal Commission for AlUla and, subject to availability, at the visitor center, but the platform strongly recommends booking ahead because few tours run each day. There are two formats:
| Element | Dadan & Jabal Ikmah Tour (shared bus) | Premium Tour (private 4x4) |
|---|---|---|
| Departure point | The Winter Park bus stop in AlUla, with free parking | Directly at the Dadan Visitor Center, with free parking |
| Duration | Two to three hours including the transfer; morning and afternoon departures daily | About two hours; daily, year-round |
| Guide | A shared rawi (storyteller) in Arabic or English, or an audio-guided route in five languages led by a Heritage Ranger | A professional guide in Arabic or English for your group alone |
| Group size | A shared air-conditioned bus | Up to seven guests in a private 4x4 |
| What is included | Transport from Winter Park, entry to both sites, water and the Illuminating Discoveries exhibition | Vehicle, guide, entry, water and the exhibition, plus one workshop subject to availability: excavation at Dadan or sculpture at Jabal Ikmah |
| Best for | Individuals, couples and tighter budgets | Families, small groups and anyone who wants their own pace and their own questions |
Slots and change policies are issued by the official channels and do change. At the time of writing: cancellation with refund up to three days before the date, date or time changes up to one day before subject to availability, and no changes on the day itself. CHAPTERS does not sell tickets for either site separately and operates nothing inside them.
Allow a full morning: about two hours on site, or two to three including the bus transfer, plus reaching the departure point, the hospitality stop at the two visitor centers, lunch and rest. The official two-day itinerary that Experience AlUla suggests for uncovering ancient Arabian history puts Hegra on the morning of day one and the Old Town in the afternoon, and gives the morning of day two to Dadan and Jabal Ikmah. That is the order we use in our 48-hour program, but it is not the only one possible:
| Order | When it suits you | What you gain and what you give up |
|---|---|---|
| Hegra first, then Dadan and Jabal Ikmah on the morning of day two (the official order) | Most visitors, and anyone arriving by midday on day one or earlier | You start with the most famous and monumental site, then descend to the older layer and read it in Hegra's light; the least flexible booking is fixed first |
| Dadan and Jabal Ikmah first, then Hegra | Anyone who wants history in chronological order, or who found no Hegra slot on day one | The story is told from the beginning: Dadan, then Lihyan, then the Nabataeans; but the journey's climax waits until day two |
| Both sites and Hegra in one day | Anyone with a single full day in AlUla | Possible if the two tour slots line up, but a long, crowded day with no midday rest; we do not recommend it with children |
In the day, choose the morning: the Jabal Ikmah canyon is partly shaded in the first hours, Dadan is open to the sun, and inscriptions read better in side light than under a vertical sun. In the year, winter and its shoulder months are AlUla's season; summer is possible with the earliest available departure.
Both tours welcome all ages and are rated low physical intensity: you move between the sites by vehicle and walk on level, designated paths. The platform does state that the tour is not suitable for wheelchairs or strollers, and that the premium tour requires parental supervision of children. What makes this morning gentler for young children than Hegra is its scale: about two hours, a canyon you walk through rather than facades you view from a distance, and an exhibition with digital displays.
For planning the AlUla day by children's ages:
You can book the tour yourself and reach Winter Park in your own car or by taxi through the local ride-hailing app; the official platform recommends renting a car, with or without a driver, during your stay in AlUla. The difference an organized journey makes is not in the entry, which is official either way, but in tying this morning to what comes before and after it.
| Element | Independent visit | With a CHAPTERS journey |
|---|---|---|
| Official tour ticket | You book it yourself on the official platform | Still the official tour; the journey proposal states whether it is included or booked in your name |
| Reaching the departure point | Your own car or a taxi to Winter Park, with timing you work out yourself | Transport from your stay to Winter Park or to the Dadan Visitor Center, timed to the tour slot |
| The link to Hegra | You read and connect it yourself | A CHAPTERS companion ties what you saw at Hegra yesterday to Dadan and Ikmah today: who built, who inherited, who wrote |
| The rest of the day | You plan it yourself | Lunch, rest and the evening stop are part of the program |
| If a site closes at short notice or the weather turns | You rearrange it yourself | The journey team resets the program and tells you |
On CHAPTERS journeys with published dates, the Dadan and Jabal Ikmah tour comes where each journey's program places it, in some as a choice instead of Hegra, with transport, companion and stay. On private journeys we choose the format that suits your group, the private vehicle with a workshop for families or the morning bus for individuals, and we may reverse the order and begin with Dadan for those who want the story from the start.
Entry to both sites is through the official tour and its ticket in either case; when a published CHAPTERS journey lists entry tickets among its inclusions and has Dadan and Jabal Ikmah in its program, the ticket is part of the journey and we arrange it, alongside transport, the companion, the stay and the program's timing. Check exactly what is included, and the change and cancellation terms, on the journey's page or in the final journey proposal.
These are the points that recur in our guests' questions and in the programs sent to us for review:
The full clothing and packing list, and the best time of year:
A narrow sandstone canyon north of AlUla town whose walls carry hundreds of inscriptions and petroglyphs in Dadanitic, Thamudic, Minaic and Nabataean, left by pilgrims and traders from the first millennium BCE onward. Experience AlUla calls it the open-air library and the largest concentration of inscriptions in the region, and it is visited on a single official tour together with Dadan.
Yes, on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register since 2023 according to Experience AlUla, which is the register of documentary heritage. The World Heritage List is a different listing, and Saudi Arabia's first site on it is Hegra. AlUla therefore has a site on the list and inscriptions in the register.
Dadan was an ancient Arabian kingdom in the AlUla valley, dated by the official history feature to roughly 900 to 600 BCE, with the city of Dadan as its capital on the Incense Road. The Lihyanites followed it or grew out of it, and the incense trade flourished under them until the Nabataeans appeared in the first century BCE. The archaeological city of Dadan is what you visit today.
Tombs cut high into the red rock cliff, named after the seated lion sculptures carved into their face, believed to belong to elite members of Dadanite society and possibly royalty; the lion stands for strength and protection. They are seen from the designated paths and may not be entered.
No. Self-driving inside the two sites is not permitted. You drive to the free Winter Park parking lot and board the tour bus, or, on the premium tour only, to the Dadan Visitor Center where the 4x4 tour begins.
About two hours on site, and two to three hours including the bus transfer from Winter Park and back. Dadan and Jabal Ikmah are about ten minutes apart by road. Allow a full morning with the arrival, the hospitality at the visitor center and lunch.
Possible if the two tour slots line up, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but it is a long day with no midday rest, and we do not recommend it with children. The official and more comfortable order is Hegra on the morning of day one and Dadan and Jabal Ikmah on the morning of day two.
Yes. It welcomes all ages and is rated low physical intensity, but according to the official platform it is not suitable for wheelchairs or strollers, and the premium tour requires parental supervision. For families we suggest the private tour in the early morning, with the excavation or sculpture workshop when available.
Choose a journey with a published date that gives Dadan and Jabal Ikmah the morning of its second heritage day after Hegra, with transport, companion and stay, or share your dates and your guests' ages and the CHAPTERS team will choose the tour format and the order of the days for you.