Saudi Arabia
Welcome to the Arabian Desert!
Saudi Arabia is one of those fascinating and mysterious places that tends to be viewed through a very particular lens. Ask people what comes to mind, and you’ll often hear the same words: desert, religion, wealth and strict traditions.
But I’ve seen too much of the world to reduce an entire country to a handful of stereotypes. In my experience, places and especially people are always more complex than the stories told about them from afar.
So I decided to go there myself, (…)
Jeddah Corniche
Hearing so much about Saudi Arabia’s strict laws and deeply rooted social and religious customs, it’s easy to picture a country that feels grim or uncomfortable—at least from a Western perspective. That made me incredibly curious about one thing: how do people here actually spend their free time?
For me, there was no better place to find out than Jeddah’s famous Corniche—a 30-kilometre stretch of coastline not far from some of Islam’s holiest places.
And while I can tell you it’s certainly not Venice Beach or Copacabana, it also felt far more human than many stereotypes suggest (…).
Al-Balad
One of the most surprising things to me while travelling through Saudi Arabia was how different its historical architecture feels from what I grew up with in Europe. Or perhaps, more accurately—how little of it has survived.
I immediately started wondering: where did it all go? And the answer, turned out to be a fascinating lesson in both geography and history.
While Europe and many other places had forests, rivers, abundant stone, Arabia faced almost the exact opposite. Wood was scarce. Rain was rare. Summer temperatures could be unforgiving, while even desert nights could become surprisingly cold. Buildings had to keep heat out rather than trap it inside (…).
KAFD
It is very clear that Saudi Arabia wants to prove itself, to catch up, and to astonish the world with its ambition.
Unlike many cities around the world that evolved organically over centuries—where today’s financial district may stand where a small market once served generations of locals—Saudi Arabia presents a very different story.
The country’s population has grown roughly tenfold over the last century, while much of society has only relatively recently transitioned from a predominantly nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle. Many of its largest cities expanded across open desert rather than around centuries-old urban cores. Nowhere is this contrast more visible than in Riyadh (…).