The Legacy of our Cultural Landscapes Continues to be Celebrated at the World’s Largest Living Museum

On the?28th of November 2006, Saudi Arabia successfully submitted its nomination to UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre. This nomination was Hegra in AlUla, an exquisite testament to the Nabataean civilisation. In July 2008, Hegra was inscribed as the Kingdom’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site – a monumental occasion for a nation rediscovering its deep and interconnected heritage.??

Fast forward to the present day, and the Ancient Kingdoms Festival has sparked a legacy programme where the rediscovery of our ancient history is being shared with the world. The ancient and geological wonder of Khaybar is the third link in the triad of legendary oases that we, at RCU, have been working to revive and reconnect. Last weekend, the opening of Khaybar marked a major milestone in our work to create an unprecedented encounter with history through the world’s largest open-air living museum across the oases of AlUla, Tayma and Khaybar.

The premise of the living museum brings the world to the heart of the story, to the sites where the imprints of legacies continue to be discovered. The process of creating this living museum has been steeped in years of archaeological discoveries, research on holistic heritage management practices and a quest to explore imaginative ways to bring historic narratives to contemporary audiences.?

None of this is possible without a pioneering spirit that we have inherited from our ancestors who continually innovated and created, with their monumental achievements at the scale of architecture and the delicacy of oral histories. It is a spirit that fuels our work, as we look to craft new chapters for these great places that continue to make history – and interestingly, sits at a time of step-change in the history of museums.?

On August 24th 2022, ICOM (Internal Council of Museums) approved the following new museum definition - “A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.”?

The new definition includes 13 new concepts such as ‘diversity,’ ‘sustainability,’ ‘ethically’, and ‘accessible’, reflecting the evolving nature of museums’ role within society. This definition also includes the word ‘interprets’ for the first time (before, it was ‘communicate’). This marks a shift from the idea of presentation to a focus on engagement. It is a message that our cultural institutions should no longer solely be a platform merely for showcasing, but should also hold meaning and create sincere and genuine connections with the intended audience.

This focus on engagement and sincerity is aligned with our vision to establish a place of heritage for the world, where the aim to make meaning by connecting to the heart and head, sets our compass for navigating how best to reconnect today's audiences with their historic inheritance. Approaching this on such an epic scale of the three oases is certainly a challenge, but it also presents an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the depth and reach of our activities in ways that can be of value not just for our visitors, but also for our cultural community.??

We look forward to crafting destinations for global exchange, inspired by the legacy of northwest Arabia and her great oases that sat at the crossroads of culture, connecting the great ancient civilisations of antiquity. We endeavour to share the living museum as a site of vibrant knowledge-exchange and set a new, aspirational benchmark for how cultural heritage can be encountered, understood and therefore protected for millennia to come.

Eman Alankari is the Executive Director, Cultural Sites Management?at the Royal Commission for AlUla.