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Royal Commission for AlUla Launches Hegra Conservation Project

RCU has launched the Hegra Conservation Project. SPA
RCU has launched the Hegra Conservation Project. SPA
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Royal Commission for AlUla Launches Hegra Conservation Project

RCU has launched the Hegra Conservation Project. SPA
RCU has launched the Hegra Conservation Project. SPA

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has launched the Hegra Conservation Project in collaboration with the Italian company Estia, which has 30 years of experience in this field.

Hegra is the first Saudi archeological site on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The project is part of the commission efforts to renovate and preserve antiquities that abound in this land of civilizations.

Led by Prof. Mauro Matteini, former director of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), a team of scientists, experts, and cultural heritage conservation technicians are investigating the factors leading to the deterioration of the ancient carved tombs in Hegra, which are over 2,000 years old.

The primary goal of the project is to identify the causes of degradation and devise measures that ensure their long-term preservation; the project will end by 2025.

Hegra Conservation Project gives the chance to share the beauty of antiquities in AlUla.

Hegra Archeological Site is one of the most distinguished historical sites in the Kingdom, whose carved tombs date back to the Nabatean time.

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Culture

UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.