Case file · Folklore / legend
Hegra and the people of Thamud
The Qur'an tells of the Thamud, who carved homes in rock and were destroyed after killing the she-camel of the prophet Salih. Tradition places them at Hegra (Mada'in Salih), whose wells the Prophet told his followers not to use.
615 CE · 26.79, 37.95 · status: legend
The account
The tombs were actually carved by Nabataeans in the 1st century BC–1st century AD. Many Saudis long avoided the site as cursed; it became Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 and opened to tourism in 2020.
The sceptical view
Archaeology shows Hegra was a Nabataean city; the Thamud are attested in Assyrian and Greek sources as a real Arabian people.