SAUDI ARABIA

Thanks to an old Saudi friend who was an advisor to the king, we were invited for a visit at the invitation of the government.  At the time (2017), the kingdom allowed no visitors, except Muslim pilgrims.  The plan was to drive and fly about ten of us to assess their nascent tourism program—-especially their antiquities.

We shared a sense of excitement as virtually the first tourists to explore the country.  Women in our group were obliged to wear black abayas, cloaking their entire bodies.  We traveled by van with lots of water (alcohol is forbidden) and a very funny guide.  

Sadly, in a push to modernize, Riyadh and Jeddah have cleared most of old buildings to make way for spectacular skyscrapers and luxury malls.  We saw the first 15 stories of Jeddah’s Kingdom Tower which is designed to rise more than a kilometer.  The most riveting sites were Roman mosaics, AlUla’s ancient city and the tombs carved into Hegra’s rocks by the same tribe that built Petra.