Located approximately 20 km south of AlUla’s old town, near the village of Mughayra, Qurh was a vital hub for pilgrims and traders throughout the ages, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
As one of the Royal Commission for AlUla’s archaeological sites, Qurh boasts outstanding architectural structures. Its ruins feature remnants of architectural structures, marketplaces, streets, and palaces which significantly highlight the city’s once-thriving economic and urban life.
Interestingly, those architectural features which date back to the early Islamic periods prove that settlement and cultural growth were in progress even after the advent of Islam.
The historian Hisham bin Al-Kalbi mentioned that Qurh was the capital of Wadi Al-Qura and a center for Arab markets. Al-Kalbi also described it as a commercial and cultural center and a cradle of the arts.
On his part, Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani, the RCA’s Vice President for Culture stated that the excavations in Qurh stand as a testament “that there was some interaction with China at the beginning of the Islamic period.”
“Evidence exists of interactions and trade extending as far as China,” he said in an interview produced by FT Longitude in partnership with the RCA.
“With China, for example, (there were) merchants who brought porcelain, medicines and silk to Arabia with incense for sure, ivory, while other valuables travelled in the opposite directions,” Alsuhaibani added.
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