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00:00Arabia a land of extraordinary wonders it's epic out here where ancient
00:09civilizations there were rock inscriptions scattered all over this
00:13landscape meet rising modern cities I'm Clive Standen and I'm embarking on a
00:23journey across the Arabian Peninsula this place is unlike anywhere else I'm
00:28forging far and diving deep uncovering its best-kept secrets a little
00:35precarious meeting the people who call this place home and the pioneers
00:40preserving its natural treasures that is remarkable I want to show you the
00:45beautiful it's just a little untouched piece of paradise the surprising it's
00:49an unbelievable sight and the heartwarming what am I supposed to do exploring the
00:55secrets that make this land so captivating I really do feel like an
01:00archaeologist mom I'm never coming home Wow this is Arabia like you've never seen
01:08before my journey across the Arabian Peninsula has led me to the largest
01:25nation in the Middle East until recently Saudi Arabia was closed to tourism but in
01:332019 it opened its doors to the world and now it's a country ripe for discovery I'm making my way to a
01:42lesser-known desert region in the remote Northwest a place steeped in ancient mysteries
01:49place this place is full of grandeur artistry and evidence of the enduring spirit of human history
01:58etched in all these rocks this is a lula defined by deserts canyons and monumental rock formations
02:12alula is an epic landscape a crossroads in the desert that seen the rise and fall of civilizations
02:21you can see a staircase leading all the way up to the top of the mountain
02:26now archaeologists are scouring this land for clues to a lost world of antiquity I can't wait to get down there
02:37and start climbing some of these rock faces and discovering the secrets in between some of these
02:42canyons it's an exciting time to be visiting allula it's one of the world's last unexplored frontiers
02:53and it's the ancient secrets being uncovered that have drawn me here
02:58time to head to ground running
03:03two and a half thousand years ago alula was a strategic pit stop on arabia's incense trade routes
03:13it was a land ruled by a succession of great kingdoms that thrived on the wealth and power
03:27the trade routes gave them and the most valuable commodity of all was frankincense used in ceremonies
03:36and rituals across the ancient world
03:44today a few miles out of the main town lies the southern tip of alula's oasis valley
03:51one side is scattered with ruins and tombs while on the other side beneath the imposing jebel ikmar mountain
04:05the rocks are crowded with mysterious markings
04:13this rugged terrain is a stepping stone into the lost kingdoms of the past
04:21of the past in the past in the past in the past in the past in the past in the past in the past
04:24today i'm doing a bit of bouldering and climbing around jebel ikmar
04:28which is a vast mountainscape
04:31which is more like an open-air library
04:34it's covered as far as the eye can see with pictures and inscriptions of ancient civilizations
04:39so this is a newly discovered archaeological site ripe for exploring and i've only just arrived and
04:49already i can see these incredible carvings and you see here this image of what could be
04:55you know a horse and camels and then above it it's a very very different inscription could be just graffiti
05:03for all we know but it is an archaeological conundrum as to how many different cultures passed by here
05:11and how much is communication between tribes and cultures journeymen the caravans the traders
05:18and how much was the locals the inhabitants leaving behind the messages from the past
05:24when the incense trade routes first started around 1000 bce goods from southern arabia passed through
05:37alula on their way northwards to mesopotamia egypt the mediterranean and beyond
05:44experts are still deciphering the true meaning of these markings
05:54but who were the people who left the messages on the rocks all over alula
06:00and what drew them here all the way across the desert in the first place
06:04arabia's best kept secrets presented by gulf air arabia's best kept secrets presented by gulf air
06:26i'm in alula saudi arabia this arid desert region is a hotbed for ancient history that's seen the rise and
06:34fall of civilizations but why here the answer lies in the vast green oasis that runs through the central valley
06:49the water found here made it a safe haven from the parched wilderness beyond
06:56to find out more i'm going to meet leading archaeologist dr wissam khalil
07:02at one of the most important archaeological sites in saudi arabia
07:09what's that oh hello that is a lot of stairs yeah welcome to dadan the view is worth it yeah
07:17this is dadan the most famous northwestern arabian kingdom was prosperous during the first millennium bc
07:24and we will have the chance to see all of that the most famous arabian kingdom arabian kingdom
07:29like i'm in it's an amazing place and behind you you have the lion tombs the famous lion tombs wow
07:37let's go
07:40dadan was the first regional power to rule alula by the sixth century bce it became part of the larger
07:48lian kingdom and for over 400 years dadan prospered as a center of trade so you've brought me up here
07:55high up on this cliff side to look at these tombs how do they get up here and why are they up here
08:01well first of all the tombs are always outside of the living area so you don't bury where you live
08:08it should be like slightly outside so one of the reasons why it's on the cliff and around or on top of
08:14the cliff because that was the place where nobody can live people with you know some means they would
08:19send somebody to carve the tomb so this is where we have the tombs of the rich why lions here
08:27specifically the lion has always symbolized the power and its strength and bravery the person who
08:34was buried in here he wanted to highlight the fact that he was imported during his his lifetime and he
08:40put those two lions even dead he is a powerful man or a person or a woman this is what i find most
08:47fascinating about the pictures and the art and the inscriptions is it gives you a real sense of
08:52humans just trying to tell their stories record it for future generations people would put on the
08:57walls anything what they did their worship everybody was trying to put on a stone that he accomplished
09:04fulfilled his a kind of duty toward that god for the well-being of his family or for his farm or himself
09:12can you tell me more about the dad knights dadan is a kingdom that got its importance
09:23through this oasis and this trade route so all those who are traveling from north to south or south to
09:30north they have to pass by this specific place because this is where they can get food water and shelter
09:37and hence becoming one of the most important northwestern arabian kingdoms these cliffside
09:45tombs offer valuable insights to how the people of dadan once lived
09:51now archaeologists are looking for clues further down on the valley floor
09:57wissam is keen to give me a taste of the old city before darkness descends
10:02can you bring this site to life bring the dan ancient design to life for me what kind of people
10:09were they let's start with the place where we are exactly this is the sanctuary so this is the place
10:14in the city was supposed to be in the middle of the city where the people would come to pray
10:19and then you have to imagine all around you have the neighborhood the streets
10:22the trade and this is the sacred place they had their oasis so they had a way to dig wells
10:29really well masoned engineered if you look to the quarries you look to the tombs it's not a city with
10:35100 200 people we're talking about a real city like we're talking about thousands and with the
10:39with the incense road there's there's going to be traders that have got very expensive products
10:43they're going to be bringing guards soldiers we have inscriptions about soldiers they they place
10:48soldiers all over the place to control the passages the city the oasis so they have to protect
10:55the crops they have to protect the products this has been absolutely extraordinary to be able to
11:00stand on an archaeological site that's still being discovered arabia's best kept secrets presented by gulf air
11:15arabia's best kept secrets presented by gulf air
11:28i'm in alula saudi arabia on the hunt for clues to its long lost civilizations
11:34as archaeologists explore previously untouched areas lots of exciting finds are being unearthed
11:48the artifacts are taken to the royal commission conservation store to be examined
11:55when they first arrive they come under the discerning eye of the conservation team
11:59head cultural heritage conservator julia edimond is going to give me a rare look behind the scenes
12:10hi clive hi i just said let's find you down here in the vaults this place is incredible it looks like
12:16you know the vaults of mi6 so you're an expert in conservation of objects and artifacts what needs
12:23to happen before it ends up in a museum i first do a documentation i do a mapping i assess the structure
12:29of stability and then i assess also the surface of the items we provide advices if they need to leave
12:35particularly sensitive items from the site then we transport them to our storage facility are there
12:42any more special kind of items in maybe some of these top secret vaults you might be able to show
12:47i will show you one of my favorite group of items
12:51the collection houses thousands of rare objects and not just from dedan many are from the time of
13:00the last great kingdom to rule elula the nabateans who seized control in 50 bce
13:08they're objects that offer a glimpse of everyday lives like these shards of pottery the better marks
13:15of a skilled craftsman they're so thin and yeah you can see how fragile they were incredible in
13:21my opinion because they are very refined how old are they are about 2 000 year old so it's quite
13:28impressive am i allowed to touch these no i'm sorry i believe the size of your hands are not suitable
13:35for this kind of fragile items what's wrong with my hands it's no surprise given the role of incense in
13:43these ancient societies that hundreds of burners have already been unearthed
13:51thousands of small figurines have also been found experts are still piecing together what they were
13:57used for but it's the coins from the nabateans that hold special significance now i can allow you to
14:05touch one coin one real treasure okay oh this is another batian coin in silver which is representing
14:16garethus the fourth which was the king and his wife uldu the detail this is this is amazingly intricate
14:24detail it's quite impressive
14:26before i take my leave julia wants to share one last object far older than anything i have encountered
14:35so far
14:39i got a little something that you might recognize what do you think it is
14:44well my first thoughts are looks like a viking drinking horn almost it just predates viking by
14:51six thousand years really yes this animal remains was found in a ritual stone structure in the desert
15:01wow so it was a ritual ceremony so maybe it could have been used as a sacrifice sacrifice or asking
15:09some more rain because the climax was uh drying drying up but at the end of the day the fact that this
15:16horn exists 7 000 years ago proves that cattle and animals were grazing the land which means it
15:22wasn't necessarily a desert the oasis was thriving exactly and everything was green and the soil was
15:27fertile exactly arabia's best kept secrets presented by gulf air arabia's best kept secrets presented by gulf air
15:43i'm in saudi arabia exploring a region in the remote northwest called alula
15:59at its heart lies a giant oasis where once great kingdoms prospered
16:05they may have come and gone but the oasis still sustains life out here in the desert
16:10there's so much greenery on the left of me palm trees as far as i can see now there are date
16:15plantations and other farms in alula's oasis now this oasis is the reason why civilizations have been
16:22able to survive here for thousands of years and i'm going to take a little detour through the oasis
16:29and have a little respite from this heat
16:34after the foundation of islam the oasis became important for a new set of travelers
16:39pilgrims making their way towards mecca
16:45in time a small town developed as the oasis expanded to service the needs of this new flow of people
16:55i'm meeting local expert huidad yassin to find out more
17:00with that this is a welcome relief from the heat it really is a sanctuary how big does the oasis span in
17:13its entirety we are now in the southern parts of the oasis it goes back all the way to the north to
17:18the dan sites in this oasis there are more than 40 water springs that occurred from underground
17:27much like today in the time of the pilgrim routes date farming was key to the local economy
17:33they prepare for the season of harvesting the date which is uh normally around early august
17:41everyone all of the families uh we call it in arabic that mean the hard work the hard work the season
17:46of hard work and it became part of our heritage one of the first thing that we give to
17:53our guests uh are the dates and can you pardon the pun can you date um how old the parts of the
18:00oasis are by the age of the trees yeah so once you look at the palm tree it's very tall and it's thin
18:07the thinner the taller the palm tree the oldest it is my ancestors who live in the old town chose
18:14this valley specifically because of the fertile soil this is what alola provided water and food
18:21and protection for the traders and even the pilgrimage during the islamic period
18:26the old town itself overlooks the oasis its stone fort stands guard above a narrow warren of houses and
18:35streets that once bustled with life but now lie abandoned we dad is going to show me part of the
18:42town that's being restored and it turns out she's no ordinary guide but continuing an age-old arabic
18:50tradition that of a storyteller known as a rawi can you tell me a bit more about the history of a rawi
19:00our history is passed by the rawis if the rawi did not exist many of our oral history would even exist
19:08now so every town or every tribe or every small settlement would have a rawi and they would be
19:12responsible for gathering the knowledge and then passing it to the community it was a big privilege to
19:17be a rawi i hold the knowledge of my uh my father my ancestors i would love it if you would tell me
19:24the story of this very very old town my ancestors they settled here around 700 years ago people start
19:32to build their houses and shops around this mountain i remember when i was young me and my siblings we used
19:40to come with my father to where he spent his childhood uh over there in that spot where my great
19:47grandfather used to be wow now my grandfather house is one of the houses that are currently under
19:53restoration and i can't wait to you know take visitors or our guests to to show them actually the
20:00house how do you think it's going to change the landscape of the old town in ulula it means a lot
20:05uh for the locals we can basically see the old town going back to life again how it used to be
20:12they feel very proud legacies from the past are found all around in the ruins of ulula but there's
20:21more than just history here next time i head into ulula's untamed wilderness in search of natural wonders
20:30they're so graceful meeting the nomads who mastered this harsh environment
20:38this is how you really make coffee and revealing alula's ultimate treasure come on there's plenty more to
20:44see
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