MENA

Dubai · United Arab Emirates

Hatta: The Valley That Changed Hands

Ninety minutes from Dubai, a mountain town where the same water has shaped human settlement for four thousand years.

Most guides to Hatta list its fort, its dam and its trails. This is the valley told differently — through the single physical problem that has shaped every era of its life. From Bronze Age tombs sited by the water to a mosque timed by shadow to a hydro plant that answers Dubai in ninety seconds, one question runs through four thousand years: where does the water go, and whose turn is it?

Cairo · Egypt

Three New Kingdom Tombs Unearthed at Saqqara with Rare Near Eastern Inscriptions

Discoveries in the Bubasteion Necropolis offer fresh insight into Egypt's military and diplomatic ties during the 18th Dynasty

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered three tombs dating to the New Kingdom period in the Bubasteion Necropolis at Saqqara, revealing inscriptions that shed light on the region's military and diplomatic connections with the Near East.

The Real Tatooine: Star Wars, Southern Tunisia and the Living Art Beneath the Myth

The Tunisian desert that became Tatooine — its Berber architecture, its vanishing film sets and the living street-art scene painting over the myth.

George Lucas filmed Star Wars across southern Tunisia, borrowing Berber pit-houses and 15th-century granaries as an alien world. But the real story is what's underneath: a living tradition of desert architecture, two millennia of coexistence on Djerba, and one of the most ambitious street-art projects on Earth.

Petra Beyond Indiana Jones

The 1989 film gave Petra a façade and invented everything behind it. The real story is in the water systems, the aniconic sculpture, the painter who framed your photograph in 1839 and the families moved out so the world could come in.

Spielberg's crew filmed the Treasury's façade in Jordan, then built the Grail chamber on a soundstage in Hertfordshire — because the real interior of Al-Khazneh is a plain, undecorated room. It's a perfect miniature of how Petra is understood: one wall, photographed a million times a year, standing in for a city that is mostly still unexcavated.

Dubai · United Arab Emirates

Mission Impossible and the Burj Khalifa

What the world's most famous building stunt tells you about everything it was filmed on

A film crew drilled into the world's tallest building to hang a man off the side of it. Behind that decision sits wind physics, a hundred-year-old cooling technology, a height race Dubai has quietly stepped away from, and an art scene older than the tower.

Dubai · United Arab Emirates

Art Installations in The Dubai Mall: A Complete Guide to Every Sculpture and Feature

From a four-storey waterfall of pearl divers to a real 155-million-year-old dinosaur — a guide to every permanent artwork inside the world's most visited building.

Every permanent sculpture, kinetic installation and immersive district in the mall — who made them, what they mean and how to see them all in two hours.

Star Wars Filming Locations in Tunisia: The Complete Tatooine Travel Guide

Every Star Wars filming location in Tunisia, from the sand-swept Mos Espa set to the cave hotel where Luke grew up — with maps, tips and a 3-to-7-day route.

Tunisia is the real Tatooine. George Lucas filmed here across five films, and most of the locations still stand. Here's every major Star Wars site — Mos Espa, Matmata, the Tataouine ksour, Djerba — plus how to link them into one desert trip.

Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates

The Rub' al Khali: Inside the Real Desert Where Dune Was Filmed

How the Liwa desert — the Empty Quarter's northern edge, and the real Arrakis — became one of the most filmed, least understood landscapes on Earth.

Denis Villeneuve filmed Dune in Liwa, on the rim of the Rub' al Khali — the largest sand sea on the planet. A desert that has been an ocean, birthed a nation, and is only now being discovered as a subject for art.

Luxor · Egypt

Ancient Egyptian Tomb with Vibrant Murals Unearthed in Luxor

Dutch excavation reveals well-preserved Ramesside period burial with rare coloured wall paintings

Archaeologists have uncovered a 3,000-year-old tomb on Luxor's west bank featuring brightly painted murals that provide valuable insights into elite burial practices during Egypt's New Kingdom period.

Dubai · United Arab Emirates

Museum of the Future Confirms Closing Date for Current Exhibitions, With New Experiences Due in Early 2027

Dubai's landmark institution will run its present galleries until mid-September before beginning work on a new generation of experiences, shaped by over 1,000 public submissions and timed to its fifth anniversary.

Dubai's Museum of the Future has confirmed that its current exhibitions will remain open to visitors until mid-September 2026, after which the institution will close for redevelopment ahead of a new generation of experiences due in the first quarter of 2027 — timed to mark its fifth anniversary.

Jeddah · Saudi Arabia

AlUla: How the Desert Became a Contemporary Art Destination

A comprehensive guide to Saudi Arabia's desert art revolution, mapping the permanent and temporary masterworks of the AlUla oasis.

Discover how AlUla transformed from an ancient trade route into a leading destination for contemporary land art. Explore the curatorial vision behind Desert X 2026, the permanent monumentality of Wadi AlFann, and the upcoming Contemporary Art Museum partnered with Paris's Centre Pompidou.

Dubai · United Arab Emirates

Emaar Reopens Burj Khalifa Open Call, Inviting Artists Worldwide to Light Up the World's Tallest Building

This year's projection design competition drops the AED 100,000 cash prize of 2025 in favour of a longer, fully global submission window — and rules out any AI-generated entries.

Emaar has reopened its Burj Khalifa Open Call, inviting artists, designers and creatives from the UAE and around the world to submit original audio-visual projections for a chance to see their work displayed on the facade of the world's tallest building. Submissions close on 18 August 2026.