Saudi Arabia: Riyadh

Riyadh is pretty much known for two things.  

1.) Its ultra-modern, chic architecture that has popped up over the last decade

2.) Its beheadings

Let's start with that first one.  ...But keep reading to here more about both (but not, like, you know, not too much about that second one.)

Now the unquestionable thriving economic and administrative center of all of Saudi Arabia, it wasn't too long ago that this city of almost four million was playing second fiddle to Jeddah.  ...And it wasn't long before that that Riyadh was but a mud-brick town, a speck on the map on the trade route toward Baghdad and the sophisticated capitals of the Levant.

My how the tables have turned: Riyadh is now without a doubt one of the wealthiest cities on the face of the planet.  That is evidenced alone by the plethora of large-scale construction projects undertaken in the last decade alone.

al-Faisaliah Tower, one of the most iconic buildings of the Riyadh skyline

designed by Norman Foster, built in 2000

Riyadh facing north from King Fahd St, the main north-south thoroughfare

Al-Mamlaka Tower (Kingdom Center) with constantly changing LED lights

built in 2002

a construction site, a familiar sight in Riyadh

Thank goodness for a history buff like me, Riyadh isn't just high-rises and concrete behemoths.  While a place like Jeddah may have a higher volume of historic buildings, those in Riyadh are grand and well-preserved.    

a gate to the Old City

al-Thumairi Gate

Masmak Fortress, a mid 19th-centry mud fortification

Unfortunately, however, accompanying some of these ancient buildings are also some ancient ways.  The two pictures below were taken in Deira Square, affectionately known as "Chop Chop" because of its very real status as the site for all the public executions in a country which is one of the most frequent in the world to use capital punishment.  

But Central Riyadh (Al-Bathaa) and especially its historic center at Al-Dira are also filled with some wonderful markets to, you know, help you forget that you're meters from where people get their heads chopped off.  Below, one vendor tries to convince a fellow Saudi to buy an ornate tissue box cover.

Just as frequently as one will stumble upon an ancient fort, however, one will also (probably literally) stumble into a Saudi standing there on his cell phone to remind you that that fort is from a bygone era.  

As it does throughout Saudi, this juxtaposition of conservative values and modernity manifests itself in interesting (and often disturbing ways) in Riyadh.  Below, a female model's face is blurred out in a mall in the Olaya District (representation of the female form is a dicey matter in all of Saudi Arabia.) 

In Souq Al-Tel, one of Al-Diera's markets, I had my first run in with the infamous Mutawa, or Saudi religious police (officially: The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices.)  While shopping in a dusty store scrounging for some old wooden doors, a voice echoed through the souq in Arabic, "Time for prayer, close down.  Time for prayer, close down."  Apparently I didn't move fast enough.  As he approached, he shouted at me in broken English, "Get out the store! Prayer time!"  ...And then promptly went into the adjacent store to shake hands with its owner.

(That's when I took the below picture.  The mutawa is easy to spot in the picture due to his shortened thobe (robe-like dress) and unsecured ghutra (checked cloth on head [generally a double-layered black cord will sit atop, as is the case for the man on the right below.)

In the face of such conservative beliefs and ultra-modern construct, it's easy reduce Riyadh to a binary equation, a city facing a class of cultures.  But Riyadh sprawls, and spread over its almost 1000 square kilometers, it's filled with Yemeni merchants, African taxi drivers, Bangladeshi laborers and living in its very different sections.

Below, a mosque in Dir'aiyah, a less populated area of Riyadh.

Dir'aiyah is probably most famous, however, as one of Saudi's two UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  Set in a deep wadi amidst a vast date palm oasis, Dir'aiyah is the ancestral homeland of the Al-Saud family.  Consequently, it's importance has meant an elaborate plan to maintain and preserve its historic mud buildings.  Below, a crane working on some of their reconstruction is just visible in the distance.

The site, originally settled in the 15th century, is surrounded by miles of mud-brick walls.

Though I couldn't get in to see all of the site, I was heartened that the fact I wasn't able to be allowed in was because the government was working so hard on the sites upkeep and preservation.  It's projected to open in about two years.  I wandered around parts that I could, however; the whole site is immense.

construction work on the welcome center area

And then I ate some baby camel.  A+, Riyadh.