The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has entered the Metaverse with the launch of the to-scale digital recreation of the Hegra World Heritage site in Saudi Arabia.
The recreation has been built on the Metaverse platform Decentraland and is the inaugural Unesco monument to appear in the virtual realm.
Visitors from all over the world will be able to navigate their customised avatar character across Hegra’s landscape, even stepping into the Tomb of Lihyan, Son of Kuza, something that’s not possible in real life. To give online visitors a true sense of its scale, the doorway has been presented in to-scale dimensions.
According to RCU’s website, carefully designed information portals will direct guests to different areas of AlUla’s heritage, growing awareness about the city’s 200 000 years of history.
As part of the next phase of development, users will be able to take a hot air balloon ride over Hegra. This will be launched alongside the latest edition of the annual AlUla Hot Air Balloon Festival and in co-operation with the Saudi Arabian Hot Air Ballooning Federation. Online visitors will enjoy unrivalled and hyper-realistic 360-degree views of Hegra’s most famous landmarks.
According to Travel Daily Media, RCU will also provide a limited number of balloon passengers a chance to receive a wearable non-fungible token (NFT), which will unlock future experiences in the Metaverse.
Reuters has shared a video of the Metaverse on its Twitter page: click here to watch it.
About Hegra:
Hegra was designated the KSA’s first World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2008. It is located 20km north of AlUla town in north-west Saudi Arabia. The site features 111 tombs amid countless rock formations, including the Tomb of Lihyan, Son of Kuza, which is the largest at 22m tall.
