With its dramatic ruddy sandstone peaks rising to greet the deep blue sky, it?s no surprise that the stunning natural landscape of Saudi Arabia’s Mada?in Salih has inspired architectural tributes for millennia. Between the fouth century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., it was the Nabataeneans ? an ancient Arab people best known for the incredible structures they built in present-day Petra, Jordan ? who carved awe-inspiring tombs into the golden Quweira sandstone. Today, architects honor that history with a thoroughly modern project of their own.

Maraya offers a new destination for the region, wrapped in a mirrored facade and looking very much like a mirage as you first approach. The concert hall makes use of both modern and vernacular materials, with a rustic stone torch-lined path leading to the main entrance. All around the reflective venue, similarly mirrored pillars rise from the desert sand.
?The ?maraya,? a giant mirror cube, is a site specific ?object-architecture,? an experience that makes us reflect on the incomparable spectacle of the geological epic, the radial abstraction of the surroundings and the singular incursions of man into the landscape,? say the architects. ?The mirror cube will highlight the surroundings instead of competing with nature. Unique in its genre, this landscape itself becomes an exhibition space.?

?The ?maraya? is inaugurated with the ?Winter at Tantora,? a unique show that features big names of international cu...