Riyadh is the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the homonymous province. It covers an area of 1,554 square kilometres and has an official population of more than five million, making it the most populous city in the country. The Saudi capital is located in the centre of the Arabian peninsula on a wide plateau, the Nejd.
Together with Buraydah and Al Khardj, it forms the "central corridor" of development. Two other population areas of the country are located around Jeddah and Mecca on the Red Sea, and around Al-Hufuf and Dhahran on the Persian Gulf.
Although Saudi Arabia is one of the most conservative countries in the world, art occupies an important place. The largest building dedicated to it remains the National Museum of Saudi Arabia. It's not just a museum, it's a national library. There are 8 galleries: man and the universe, Hajj, Arab kingdoms, the pre-Islamic era, the prophet's mission, unification, Islam and the Arabian peninsula, the Arabs. It's a very enchanting place, and you'll enjoy it. Other museums are visible. It is the museum of the Royal Saudi Air Force. It recounts the history of local military aviation.
Riyadh does not lack points of interest. Located at the top of one of the city's most remarkable buildings, the tower of the kingdom, the Sky bridge is very popular! It will project magical panoramas of the whole city of Riyadh. It's very beautiful! Riyadh's zoo, the largest in the country, will answer your expectations of discoveries, with its exquisite fauna. Another museum will take you to Riyadh: the museum of antiquities. Visitors often don't want to leave again because they see a wonderful collection of paintings, inscriptions, porcelain, pottery, ceramics, coins, statues, jewellery and frescoes.
Riyadh is not only cheeky luxury and pasha life, it's also a lot of culture! One of the most important events that bring a crazy world together is the Jenadriyah festival. It is a colourful cultural event that lasts almost two weeks. There's a lot of interesting things going on there. You will attend camel races, local music and dance shows, popular games, folk costumes, a book fair, etc. You will be charmed. It is usually held in February or March. Don't be told about the event, it will be sensational!
To evoke the development of prestigious neighborhoods, one thinks of all the symbols that have been those of Riyadh for half a century. It was formerly the fort of al-Masmak, a denial of power, built not far from the souks it controlled and the great mosque which was its spiritual support. Then the new large stone and concrete mosque (photo n° 6l), built in the 1950s, near a renewed Riyadh emirate. The water tower in the shape of a blue and white mushroom (photo n° 5l), symbol of modernization, abundant water after centuries of scarcity: supreme luxury... The avenue lined with ministries, signs of the establishment of a centralized power, stretched towards the airport, symbol of openness to the world.
Since 1973, the two tower buildings of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the Saudi Development Fund, the bulwarks of international financial power, have been "signs". The building of King Khâlid, emblem of the new times: the royal family no longer depends on merchants as in the past, it builds and invests itself. And the gigantic tour of television: does it not mean that the instrument of a technique that was rejected and banished only twenty years ago, twenty years ago, is so high?
What will tomorrow's symbols be? They will undoubtedly have to be sought in the grandiose project of the qasr al-hukm which, in the very heart of the ancient city, will combine administrative, cultural and religious activities in an architectural setting worthy of the new financial scale of the Saudi Arabs. And also on the side of the gigantic university that is currently being built on the road to Dir' îya, the cradle of the dynasty and Wahhâbisme.
Riyadh has also established itself as a centre for the dissemination of new cultural models: foreign models through contact with the many expatriates present in Riyadh, but above all Wahhâbite norms of behaviour. It would be very interesting for the cultural and social history of Saudi Arabia to study how these norms have slowly spread over the past two centuries, particularly in different cultural regions of the Najd: we think of the Hijâz and even more so of the' Asîr where clothing, housing, village institutions and the status of women seem to have undergone profound changes since the establishment of the power of the Saoud, fifty years ago. The dominant group expands its cultural influence: it is in the logic of a city that, in less than a century, has been able to bring together within its walls political and administrative power, financial and economic power.
