UNESCO Heritage Facts

Decorative style used in mud houses in At-Turaif District

Dir'iyah is a major national symbol in the history of Saudi Arabia. It has been associated with the formation of the First Saudi State, of which it was the capital. It represented a historic turning point in the Arabian Peninsula since 1744 AD, becoming the country’s base and the seat of its government and knowledge. It continued to do so until Imam Turki bin Abdullah chose Riyadh as the new capital city in 1824.
Dir'iyah lies 25 km northwest of Riyadh. Its settlements are spread across the banks of Wadi Hanifah and its tributaries, between Ghasiba in the north and Mulaibid in the south. Surrounded by an ancient wall with mud fortifications and towers, Dir'iyah and its surrounding areas cover an area of approximately 2,020 square kilometers. It is penetrated by Wadi Hanifah and its multiple tributaries, such as Al Khasif, Al Haraiqa, Ghubairah, Al Bulaida, Al Mughaisibi, Qaseer, Safar, Qilaiqil, Qari Imran, and others.
Signs of progress and urban development in Historic Dir'iyah are visible in those districts whose ruins continue to survive to this day, like the At-Turaif District, which is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Entrance to one of the alleys of Historic Jeddah

Jeddah is located in the Makkah Province in Western Saudi Arabia along the shore of the Red Sea. Jeddah became the port of entry to Makkah during the reign of Caliph Othman ibn Affan (644-655 AD). The beaches of the Kingdom’s western coast are famous for their adjoining coral reefs that extend in vertical lines parallel to the shore.

Jubbah: Located 100 km northwest of Hail, Jubbah is considered one of the most important, biggest, and oldest sites for rock art in the Kingdom. It features several petroglyphs and inscriptions spread across Jabal Umm Sinman and nearby mountains (Unaizah, Gara, Muaiwiz, Shuwaihit, and Merkaba), which date back to four different eras.
Shuwaymis: Manjor and Raat are located 320 km southwest of Hail and 35 km east of Shuwaymis village. The site includes rocky escarpments known as Jabal al-Manjor and Jabal Raat. It is surrounded by the Al Harrah area and penetrated by a wadi known as Wadi Raat.

Al-Ahsa Governorate is located in the Eastern Province, 360 km from Riyadh and 150 km from Dammam city. Al-Ahsa is considered the largest palm oasis in the world. It also enjoys an important strategic and geographic location, playing a key role in the region’s history since ancient times. Al-Ahsa also possesses a cultural legacy linked to ancient global civilizations, acting as a gateway to the Arabian Peninsula to the east and a bridge that connects the Arabian Gulf to the Indian Subcontinent.
Al-Ahsa was and still remains an area rich in groundwater, besides being home to a huge number of palm trees, which exceeds two million trees and spans 10,000 hectares, producing the best varieties of dates in the world. It also produces rice and various types of fruits and vegetables that are famous in this region.
Al-Ahsa is one of the most famous palm oases that is overflowing with springs, along with being the greenest region in the Eastern Province. With the presence of over 1.5 million  date-producing palm trees across its expanse, it is the largest self-contained oasis in the world, a fact that enabled it to participate in global competitions to determine the world’s seven wonders.
The banks of Al-Ahsa Oasis are adorned by a dense vegetation cover due to its abundant groundwater, in addition to its plentiful freshwater springs. Al-Ahsa derives its name from the word Al Hasi, which means spring. These springs have gained global fame, and they include Al Jawhariya, Um Sab’aa, Al Khodoud, Al Harah, and Um Najm, as well as sulfur water springs and a scenic ecosystem.
The region’s architectural fabric is known for its quality. It features a vast number of components that form the structure of buildings, which can be gathered and assembled effectively. These buildings, however, lie in a state of disrepair due to people deserting them and a lack of care and maintenance. It is highly likely that the region’s architectural appearance may come under the threat of urban expansion.

Ḥimā Cultural Area is located in Najran, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, on one of the oldest caravan routes passing through the Arabian Peninsula. Ḥimā Cultural Area includes a huge collection of rock art images depicting hunting, fauna, flora, and lifestyles in a culture that lasted 7,000 years without interruption. Travelers and armies camping on the site left a wealth of rock inscriptions and petroglyphs through the ages and until the late 20th century, most of which are preserved in pristine condition. Inscriptions are in different scripts, including Musnad, Aramaic-Nabatean, South-Arabian, and Thamudic. The property and its buffer zone are also rich in unexcavated archaeological resources in the form of cairns, stone structures, interments, stone tool scatters, and ancient wells. It also includes the 3,000-year-old Bi’r Ḥimā, which still produces fresh water.
All rock arts and inscriptions have been preserved in their original locations, retaining their place, elements, setting, form, and design. The region’s cultural traditions also contributed to some extent to their conservation through traditional usage, which at the same time points towards various stages of visible changes to arts and inscriptions, indicating that they belong to different eras. The original form and designs of ancient clothing, tools, weapons, and ornaments can be identified in the rock art images. The traditions of the following centuries could be determined from the rock inscriptions, as well as their authenticity, through similarities with direct-dated rock art in other parts of the Kingdom. Direct dating was carried out in Ḥimā to establish the exact age of some of its inscriptions.

The ‘Uruq Bani Ma’arid Reserve is situated along the western edges of the Empty Quarter Desert in the Najran Province, across an area spanning over 12,750 square kilometers. The adjoining desert is one-of-a-kind in tropical Asia and the largest continuous sand sea on the Earth.
Its biodiversity offers vital natural habitats, making it a unique example of the continuing ecological and biological evolution of native flora and fauna species. It includes more than 120 types of indigenous wild plants, in addition to endangered animals that live in one of the harshest climates on planet Earth, such as the only free-ranging herd of Arabian Oryx in the world, the Arabian Sand Gazelle, and the Arabian Mountain Gazelle. It is the richest known biodiverse stretch of the Empty Quarter Desert, a place where the world’s largest sand sea meets the second longest mountain range of the Arabian Peninsula, to paint a unique natural portrait rich in diversity despite the harshness of the elements.