AlUla Camel Cup to celebrate animal intrinsic to cultural, sporting fabric of Arabia

ALULA: The AlUla Camel Cup will combine modern and ancient life while celebrating the incredible feats of an animal intrinsic to the cultural and sporting fabric of Arabia, organizers of the inaugural tournament said on Thursday.

Held under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the chairman of the Royal Commission for AlUla, the competition will take place from March 14-17, with a grand prize pool of SR80 million ($21 million).

A “Champion of Champions” will be crowned at the much-anticipated event marking the pinnacle of camel racing in Saudi Arabia this season.

The contest is organized by the RCU as part of the AlUla Moments calendar in collaboration with the Saudi Camel Racing Federation. More than 40 of the region’s finest racing camels have qualified for the AlUla Camel Cup.

With the highest prize pots in the world per round of camel racing, the tournament will feature a marathon of six rounds with a prize pool of SR960,000 per round, a series of “Heritage Races” made up of eight rounds with a total prize pool of SR51.2 million, and two rounds of “Elite Races” offering a prize pool of SR12 million each.

AlUla, a place of extraordinary human and natural heritage, was one of the main stops along the ancient Incense Road and pilgrimage routes. Be it rock art or figurines, depictions of camels dot the landscape of this stunningly beautiful part of Saudi Arabia, illustrating the unique human animal relationship that continues to be so important to the region’s people nowadays.

“To be in AlUla is to witness how special and everlasting the relationship between camel and the region is — indeed, the camel is so synonymous with Arabia as to act as a symbol of the land itself,” said chief tourism officer of