The southern wall of the town extends from Rabwat Al-Helf in the west to Al-Romath in east, which include castles in different areas. It was build for protection and security of the town as each clan had its own castle. Local people of the town served as guards depending on the time given to them, they are responsible for control and surveillance in their point of duty without salary. Everyone had to be involved in maintaining security because security maintains decent life for all. Castles located on the southern wall included Mejeflah and Al-Ali Castles, Makida, Hoekem, Al-Mansouri, Ibn Awad, Ibn Jabr and Ezzo cases at the western part of the wall. The southern wall construction dates back long time before the building of the northern wall.

Old Al-Ula is located between these two fences bordering it in the north and south. Those fences enclosed the two farms and spring water while the eastern and western parts were naturally protected by mountains. Al-Ula expanded beyond these fences only after the rule of Al-Saud Family. However, Al-Ula train Station was built outside the southern fence of the town in a location called “Al-Manshia” perhaps for technical and design considerations.

The old town consists of 780 houses. All their lords are well known and they registered in a special registry. Each house consists of two storeys. The ground floor in most cases is made of a small hall called asfal. The ground floor is use as food storage and family needs and it has a strong door with a wooden lock. It had no windows but has an opening in the roof for lighting purpose. The internal stairs connect the ground floor to the upper one, which consists of a room that called “attayarah” because it is hang over the shed and has a small window overlooking the road. Beside attayarah, there is a yard for the family seating and reception for guests and is use as a place of eating and drinking. In the yard, there is the brazier use for making coffee and keeping the food warm. The open roof of the house is use mostly for drying grains, cooking and sitting in the days of moderate weather or under the sun in the winter. On the roof, there is also the bathroom or the toilet, which called by the local population Asendas that seems it is a Turkish name. There was no water in this bathroom for bathing or washing, but it is of the dry type. People go to Al-Geneina to bathe and wash after using the bathroom.

The homes of the town had no windows except that in the attayarah, the rooms hanging over the roads. Every house had only one door used for entry and exit, which was made mostly of reinforced palm wood. The door provided with a wooden lock from outside and another from inside. The door also included a holed through which the person desiring to enters his hand and opens by a wooden key made for that purpose. The Old Town includes a series of old farms, which was irrigated by Tid’el, Al-Muallaq, Al-Ujaa and other old springs that located within the walls of the town and confined in the north by Asaba’ah Wall, south by Al-Mahash fence, in the east by the Almejder Mountain and in the west by Saq Fence and sheds. The farms forms a variety of areas and small agricultural holdings irrigated from water springs and distributed among farmers according to a system respected and complied by all. Each farm or orchard as described by the local people had its own name. Known names included Albadoua, Altat, Al-Fadhli, Saberi, Al-Gualeb, Al-Kor, AL-Bata, Al-Baquera, Al-Krem, Al-Jurein, Al-Mufjer, Al-Hamri, Al-Ajalin, Al-Maqor and many others.

A fence with a door surrounds each orchard. The pathways between the orchards composed such walls as they were connected. It is higher than the level of the orchard so that someone enters the door will have to reach the normal level of the orchard. This is also relate to the irrigation system as water enters from the beginning of the orchard and slopes until it reached the normal level at the other end and so forth in the other orchards until the last one. There were regulations, laws and traditions that governed the irrigation management. In addition, it was possible to set, rent, exchange, inherit or endow water. There are some writings held with the people of Al-Ula about the method of these water distribution including laws, rules, customs, names of chiefs and owners and their shares and all the details of the irrigation system, which are inherited by generation after another.

The Old town divided into two zone: northern and southern, parts that almost separated by Um Nasser Mountain. The northern part is called “Ashogeg” while the southern part is called “Al-Helf”. The clans used to inhibit the old town divided according to this distribution into two divisions: Al-Helf clans and Ashogeg clans. All clans were known as Al-Alawna. The indication to this name was set out in the many historical ancient documents, especially those of the alliances and treaties between the people of Al-Ula and some neighboring tribes. Both Al-Helf clans had and Ashogeg clans have their own sheikhs who entrusted with making the decisions on the common matters relevant to the town. Clans that settled the southern part included Al-Ali, Al-Weheiba, Al-Nafe, Al-Zahouf, Al-Salama, Al-Hamd, Al-Mahfouz, Al-Mohammed and Al-Qudat clans while those resided in the northern part included: Al-Goroog, Al-Aseera, Al-Badna, Al-Tiamenah, AL-Awad and Al-Bedir clans. These were the main clans that settled in the old city. However, there are some families, that came from Najd and Qassim, which dwelt in the town in the period that preceded the oil boom era including: Al-Luhaidan, Al-Badran, Al-Ajlan, Al-Barrak, Al-Turki, Al-Fada, AL-Hajjaj, Al-Oreini, Al-Wahaibi, Al-Mehesin, Al-Weqesi, Ibn Mohareb, Al-Mehmad, Al-Sehibani, Al-Badran and Al-Nasser. The families that came from the west coast and settled in the old town are Al-Fershouti, Shehata, Abu Salem, Al-Bedewie, Al-Affandi, Fatuh, and Juneid. Some of these families remain in Al-Ula until today and considered as the native people of Al-Ula.

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