Madinah is a city of orchards and volcanic plains in the Hejaz, one of the two holiest cities in Islam, and - unlike Makkah - open to visitors of any faith.
That distinction is worth stating plainly, because it is widely assumed to work the other way. The Saudi Tourism Authority's own guidance is that Madinah welcomes visitors from around the world, and that access to certain sacred areas, including Al Masjid an Nabawi, is restricted to Muslims. Makkah is different: it is closed to non-Muslims entirely.
So a non-Muslim visitor can travel to Madinah and see the city - the historic neighbourhoods, the date farms, the museums, Uhud mountain and the old lava fields that make the ground here unlike anywhere else in the Hejaz - but not the sacred sites at its centre.
For Muslim visitors, a permit is required for Al Rawdah Al Sharifah and should be booked in advance through Nusuk.
Getting there and when to go
Madinah has an international airport and sits on the Haramain high-speed line to Jeddah and Makkah.
What the tourism authority says
Located in the western region of Saudi, Al Madinah Al Munawwarah holds a central place in Islamic history as the city that welcomed the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) after the Hijrah. It is home to Al Masjid an Nabawi and several sites that mark key moments in the early foundations of Islam.
Sources
Photograph: Kaliper1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.