Dadan

            One of the principal settlements of Arabia during the 1st millennium B.C. It is situated northeast of the modern town of Ul-Ula, and was known as an important entrepot center. Strategically it was located on the ancient spice road connecting southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia.

     Dadan had been mentioned in the Old Testament, Assyrian records and old Arabic inscriptions. According to these epigraphic sources it is believed that the town was the capital of Dedan kingdom during the 1st half of the 1st millennium B.C., then it became a Lehyanite center, before it was abandoned during the 1st century B.C.

    Archaeological excavations conducted at the site by a team from King Saud University revealed some structures of religious nature, and identified different sequential phases of occupations of the site. It has also yielded a number of Dadanite and Lehyanite inscriptions, along with pottery, coins, statues, altars, sculptures, and alabaster objects.