The only answer to this beauteous mystery is, Maraya.
Amidst Alula’s historic and encompassing beauty I drive with my friends. All I can see are tones of reds from the unwavering mountains of the Ashar Valley, todays picturesque blue sky and an endless paved road. The Ashar valley to my first sight seems like a sanctuary of enriching yet somehow simplistic beauty with luxury glamping tents camouflaged in the far distance of the Valley. Utopia.
Then suddenly when my eyes turn to the left-hand side of the road, I hit a wall. As if the very scenery I had just seen on my right-hand side would exist in meticulous precision just as it does on the other side of the road. It is only when the blinding sun shimmers unexplainably in the distance, reflecting of a building, that my mind gets triggered by something that I can somehow not see. A building undoubtedly present yet diminished to my sight.
The only answer to this mystery is Maraya. The world biggest mirror building, a state of art and an architectural artistry of 9,740 mirrored panels. Placed amidst the Ashar Valley, Maraya, translating from Arabic into reflection, reflects the surrounding nature of its mirrored panels making it part of the very existence of nature. Not only part of it, but amplifying the beauty of the Ashar Valley, the beauty of AlUla through its mirrors.
We drive towards this grandeur, and I soon come to realize that it offers different angles and perspectives to the life surrounding us. Like a building that fuses itself while it plays hide and seek with mother earth. An empty canvas beholding the wealth of a new message projected onto its papers every day, different from that of yesterday and tomorrow.
Its innocent grace shines even from within as, throughout the year, it is home to the melodies of world stars and emotions of rejoice as the symphony of creative men and woman fill its inner with their craft, their voice and their own unique tune.
The Reflection, Maraya’s own Metaphor
As I stand in front the Maraya, I see myself in its reflection and I think to myself,
‘the Maraya, it’s like a metaphor of life, that what we are, that what we surround ourselves by and that what we choose to accept into our presence becomes our very identity. Our inner values that, just like the Maraya, reflect back out onto the world with decent yet ever so profound, impactful and unprecedented presence.’