NEOM occupies a corner of the Arabian Peninsula with a long and layered history. Long before the modern project was announced, this region was a crossroads of trade, religion, and empire. This article surveys the historical context that NEOM now overlays.
Ancient trade routes
For more than two thousand years, the western Arabian coast served as a major trade artery. The incense routes carried frankincense and myrrh from southern Arabia north toward the Mediterranean. The same routes brought spices, gold, ivory, and silk in and out of the Arabian Peninsula. Caravans moved through the inland valleys, stopping at oases for water and supplies.
The region now occupied by NEOM sat astride several of these routes, with caravan paths threading through the wadis and along the coast. The area was also connected to the Red Sea trade between Egypt and the southern Arabian kingdoms.
The Nabataean period
The Nabataeans, a Semitic Arab people who built their capital at Petra in what is now southern Jordan, also controlled territory south into what is now northern Saudi Arabia. Their southern outposts and trading settlements extended into the region around modern Tabuk.
The Nabataeans left rock-cut tombs and inscriptions across northern Saudi Arabia, including at Hegra (Madain Salih), the southern equivalent of Petra and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Hegra lies south of the NEOM region but reflects the same architectural and cultural tradition that shaped the wider area.
Islamic history
The seventh century saw the rise of Islam in western Arabia. The early Islamic conquests brought the region under the new caliphate, integrating it with the broader Islamic world. Pilgrimage routes to Mecca crossed the region, and trading settlements grew up along them.
Tabuk itself enters Islamic history as the site of the Expedition of Tabuk in 630 CE, one of the last campaigns led by the Prophet Muhammad. The expedition reached the area to assert authority over the northwestern frontier of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Hejaz Railway
In the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire built the Hejaz Railway to connect Damascus with Medina. The line ran through the region now occupied by NEOM, with stations including Tabuk. The railway was intended both to serve the annual pilgrimage and to consolidate Ottoman control over the western Arabian frontier.
The Hejaz Railway is closely associated with the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918, during which T. E. Lawrence and Arab forces attacked the line and the Ottoman positions along it. Several stretches of the railway, station buildings, and locomotives remain visible across the region today.
Modern era
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the First World War, the Hejaz region came under the control of the Sharif of Mecca and then, in the 1920s, the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under King Abdulaziz ibn Saud. The region became part of the wider Kingdom and the Tabuk Province as administrative reform followed.
In the second half of the 20th century, the region remained relatively quiet. Tabuk became a regional centre and military base, and a small but growing tourism sector based on the Red Sea coast developed.
Tabuk Province today
The Tabuk Province extends across the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia, with the city of Tabuk as the regional capital. Beyond the city, the province includes:
- The Red Sea coast and Gulf of Aqaba shoreline, now the site of NEOM.
- The Sarawat mountains, with peaks rising over 2,500 metres.
- The wider Hejaz region with its history of trade, pilgrimage, and the Arab Revolt.
- Ancient sites including pre-Islamic rock art, Nabataean inscriptions, and the Hejaz Railway corridor.
How NEOM fits into the region’s history
NEOM is now the most prominent new chapter in the region’s long history. The project overlays a thousand-year-old crossroads of trade and culture with a new urban, industrial, and tourism programme. NEOM has stated its intent to integrate heritage protection into its master plans, including the Hejaz Railway corridor and pre-Islamic rock art sites in and around the region.
The historic resonance of the location is also part of the tourism story for NEOM. Visitors to Sindalah, Magna, or Trojena are within reach of Hegra and AlUla to the south, and of Petra and Aqaba across the Gulf in Jordan.
Related reading
For the wider NEOM region, see the main NEOM overview. For Vision 2030 context, see NEOM and Vision 2030. For tourism around the wider region, see the NEOM tourism guide.
Sources
This article draws on the Saudi Ministry of Culture, the UNESCO World Heritage list, academic literature on the Nabataean, Islamic, and Ottoman periods, and reporting from Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Reuters, and trade press in heritage tourism. Corrections welcome.