An agreement in the name of culture, history, tourism and... stones. Officials from the Royal Commission for AlUla and the city of Matera have signed a twinning agreement aimed at safeguarding and promoting their cultural heritage. The signing ceremony took place in the Sassi of Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the south of the country.

Matera, better known for its cave dwellings in the Sassi, this year celebrated its thirtieth anniversary as a World Heritage Site, while AlUla, home to Hegra, the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in Saudi Arabia, boasts a 2,000-year-old heritage shaped by the Nabataean kingdom.

Under the new agreement, RCU and Matera will collaborate through cultural exchanges, joint initiatives, and knowledge sharing in areas such as cultural conservation, education, economy, and social development.

Waleed Al-Dayel, Chief Strategy and Digital Strategy, stated: "The agreement with Matera supports our efforts to create a global destination in ways that benefit the community, economy, and environment of AlUla, offering opportunities for residents of both cities to learn about different cultures, build personal connections, and explore shared challenges and opportunities".

Tiziana D'Oppido, Council Member for Culture, Tourism and Events and a city official of Matera, said: "The anniversary of the thirtieth year since Matera became a UNESCO World Heritage Site was the best day to highlight the twinning agreement between the Royal Commission for AlUla and the Municipality of Matera. The calendar of activities we will carry out in synergy, with great mutual collaborative spirit and respecting the sustainability goals of the two destinations in preserving their UNESCO sites, is ambitious, operational, and rich - culture as an economic driver, tourism, cinema, events, design, arts, archaeology, architecture, accessibility, Sassi as a successful urban ecosystem and much more for two geographically distant realities but with many common elements. Matera, European Capital of Culture in 2019, is a case study for the ability to recover the value of a city that the world has long overlooked, and which risks being abandoned and forgotten by history, just like AlUla, becoming instead both a land of redemption and virtuous examples to follow".

The twinning program is part of a broader agreement between AlUla and Italy. Other initiatives have included a five-day cultural meeting of the Saudi village at Villa Borghese in Rome in September and a partnership with the Cortona on the Move photography exhibition at the AlUla Arts Festival in 2022.

Meanwhile, Saudi youth are receiving heritage conservation training at the La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center, near Turin.