In the northern part of the AlUla wadi, at the foot of a tall red sandstone cliff, an immense field of ruins unfolds, known locally as Khuryabah (“the little ruins”), which covers an area of around 9 hectares (22 acres), and has been known to travelers since the 19th century. They are the likely remnants of the ancient capital of the kings of Dedan and Lihyan, who reigned over a large part of north-western Arabia in the 1st millennium BCE. Numerous inscriptions, including those accompanying the famous “lion reliefs”, are evidence of the presence of a Minoan colony between the 6th and 1st centuries BCE that remains to be located among the ruins.