The aim of this article is to explore photography practices in the documentation of AlUla Old Town since the beginning of the 20th century, from the photographs collection of the AlUla Museum. Through this, one can follow the evolution of the heritage site throughout the last century and confront the different photographers’ approaches through their documentary contribution. The earliest photographs are from Jaussen and Savignac, who explored the Old Town during their archaeological journey from Jerusalem to Medina. Since then, archives collections increased in the AlUla Museum but remain overlooked. The early travellers’ photographs from 1904 match with the explorations of Hejaz, which became more accessible through the railway for Muslim Pilgrimage. Among these pictures are archaeological survey documentation (for example, Peter Parr in 1968) and photography reporting for wider exploration of the region (as Jamie Simson for Robert Hurd Overseas society in the 1980s). The Museum collection is also composed of several private donations and AlUli familial archives (Omar Ali Alwan fond dated to 1980), that document the recent history of the Old Town. These photographic testimonies give a wide range of information which is spreading from archaeology to ethnography. From archaeological documentation to personal photography, the study of these archives highlights the AlUla urban evolutions, questions the photographic intentions underlying their compositions, and bring out the documentary function of photography for heritage studies, in their tangible as much as in their intangible aspects.