Tag Archives: HEGRA

Surrounded by awe-inspiring human and natural heritage, The Chedi Hegra will be the first hotel to welcome guests to a uniquely authentic luxury experience deep in the ancient Nabataean site in north-west Saudi Arabia. RCU has selected luxury hotel management company GHM to operate the hotel as The Chedi Hegra. Situated within Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site and opening by Q4 2023, The Chedi Hegra will offer 35 bespoke guest rooms, each with its own distinct connection to the Hegra landscape, a breathtaking testimony of human expression within the natural environment. RCU is building the hotel directly into several existing structures, including an old railway station and surrounding buildings, Hegra Fort, and others. Structural and exterior walls, some with historical mud-brick construction, are being preserved and integrated with modern architecture. The vast majority of the UNESCO World Heritage Site will remain untouched by construction and carefully preserved by RCU to maintain the integrity of Hegra’s incredible human and natural heritage. RCU has also ensured all design and construction efforts align with the Sustainability Charter for AlUla, including a light-touch tourism approach, imaginative infrastructure, planting of native flora, and an all-electric mobility system. Where possible, the project will use local construction materials and work with local businesses and labour, and the hotel is expected to create at least 120 jobs once fully operational. The property will feature three fine-dining restaurants, a café, and a full-service spa and pool, with many of the buildings connected by an overhead art canopy focused on wind movement and natural light. The on-site restaurants will each offer unique experiences for hotel guests and others visiting Hegra. One of the restaurants inside the old railway …

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has successfully hosted the Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates & Friends, a three-day gathering of 35 Nobel Laureates and their eminent peers in AlUla to discuss the key issues facing humanity under the theme New Openings: Decisive Moments for a Decisive Decade. The first HEGRA Conference of Nobel Laureates & Friends was held in early 2020 as a gathering of Nobel Laureates. Following the success of the inaugural edition, the latest edition welcomed esteemed laureates from a range of prestigious awards. The conference brought together a diverse mix of intellectuals including: Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchu-Tum (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), former Polish President Lech Walesa (Nobel Peace Prize, 1983), journalists Michael Moss (Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, 2010) and Jeff Gottlieb (Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, 2011); Prof. Omar M. Yaghi, The James and Neeltje Tretter Chair at the University of California Berkeley (King Faisal Prize); and Dominique Langevin, the research director at Europe’s largest fundamental science agency – Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS (UNESCO for Women in Science). HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, led a strong Saudi contingent at the conference that also included HH Princess Noura bint Turki Al Saud, founding partner of Aeon Strategy, and HE Eng. Ibrahim Muhammad Al Sultan, a member of the RCU board of directors. Also in attendance was a contingent of about 20 Saudi high-school and university students, many of whom had benefited from the Kingdom’s Mawhiba programme for gifted youths. The students contributed to several discussions at the conference, in particular a final-day forum on young people as the builders of …