Mada’in Saleh
SAUDI ARABIA
Legend holds that the ancient city of Mada’in Saleh, deep in the Saudi Arabian desert, is a cursed place, punished by Allah for its inhabitants’ idolatry. Indeed, the wind-carved pillars of sandstone jutting out of the dunes are easily likened to writhing souls, tortured for eternity in eerie formations visible for miles.

Yet in its 1st century heyday, this vital city of the Nabataean kingdom was a key trading post for merchants plying spices, frankincense and myrrh from as far away as Yemen. The once nomadic Nabataeans lived in mud-brick dwellings long washed away, but they housed their dead in elaborate mausoleums carved from these sandstone monoliths. Some 111 exquisitely preserved tombs survive. In 2008, UNESCO named Mada’in Saleh a World Heritage site, Saudi Arabia’s first, but the stigma of God’s wrath remains. The Prophet Muhammad, wary of a relapse into idol worship, exhorted his followers never to sleep, eat or pray in the tombs’ shadows. The result is an archaeological wonderland utterly devoid of visitors—a curse that is also a blessing.