To the origins
The country's first Unesco World Heritage site,Hegra (Al-Hijr) is the most important testimony to Nabataean civilization after Petra in Jordan. The Nabataeans are famous for their monumental tombs carved directly from sandstone. Masters in the art of playing the sun's reflections off the rock to reveal its infinite variety of tones, the Nabataeans also developed an astonishing sense of decoration, blending their own creations with motifs and symbols borrowed from other cultures. Take, for example, the monumental Hellenistic-inspired porticoes; the Mesopotamian merlons or redans; or the Egyptian-style pyramidal structures. The tomb of Lihyan, son of Kuza, is one of the most famous on the site. The Nabataeans also demonstrated an innate sense of hydraulic engineering, digging hundreds of wells in the valley. This mastery of water is also to be found in the country's incredible oases. Occupied for millennia, the archaeological zone of the ancient Qaryat Al-Faw oasis is incredibly rich. It's hard not to be impressed by its astonishing, tapering stone structures with triangular or circular silhouettes adorned with rock engravings and associated with tombs and cairns The oasis is also home to the remains of a perfectly coherent urban layout separating residential, commercial (souks) and religious zones. The latter includes a fascinating necropolis whose tomb-towers reflect the social hierarchy of the time, with the elite having imposing tombs built... as well as vast mansions, some of which have preserved beautiful decorative frescoes. Further north, the country is home to incredible fortified oases with a history stretching back thousands of years. For researchers, these fortifications illustrate the transition from a temperate to an arid, desert climate, requiring increased protection of springs and crops. Designed to protect against enemy raids, these fortifications were also designed to guard against the onslaught of this hostile climate. The Dumat Al-Jandal site is particularly striking, with its stone-built castle surrounded by some 15 wells, the deepest of which could reach 40 m (some even have staircases built into their masonry), and its clear urban "zoning" of stone buildings and mud houses lining narrow, shady alleys. Most often built on high ground, these fortified silhouettes were unmistakable from trade routes such as those marking the Hima cultural area. Punctuated by cairns, graves and wells, but also toll booths and urban settlements from which emerge imposing fortress-like caravanserais, square in plan, surrounded by high walls and arranged around a central courtyard, these caravan routes still retain a strong aura.
A unique architecture
In the Aseer region, the Heritage Village of Rijal Almaa is home to some very special multi-storey residences reminiscent of forts. Made of natural local stone, often highlighted with brilliant white quartz, clay and wood (especially for the balconies), these "palaces" give the village the appearance of a fortified city. In the Al Baha region, the Heritage Village of Zee Ain houses 2 to 4-storey dwellings in polished stone, with impressively thick load-bearing walls, a wooden frame system covered with stones, themselves protected with mud to reinforce insulation, and vast halls lined with stone columns. The old cities of Riyadh, Dariya and Khobar, as well as the village of Ushaiqer, bear witness to the structural and stylistic richness of Najdi architecture. This earthen architecture is entirely based on the principles of harmony and coherence. Zones and districts are divided according to their functions, and the public/private balance is respected throughout. To fully grasp the richness of this architecture, you need to wander through the labyrinth of alleys lined with astonishing residences. The first highlight is the entrance door (al-bab), whose degree of decorative refinement bears witness to the importance of the owner. Wood and metalwork, floral, geometric or calligraphic motifs, these doors can be veritable works of art. Now take a look at the exterior walls, and you'll no doubt see small, slightly protruding elements of wood or adobe, pierced at the bottom by small holes. Shaped like a semi-circle, square or triangle, these elements allow you to see without being seen. They're called tarma, the equivalent of our eyeholes or peepholes. If you look up, you'll discover alfuraj, small, triangular-shaped openings at the top of the walls that provide light and ventilation while respecting the privacy of the home. The patterns created by their alignment break up the massiveness and monotony of the exterior walls. The shuraf crown these harmonious earthen edifices. Made of adobe bricks, covered with local gypsum and painted with white plaster (as much to decorate as to protect from the rain), these gables can be of various shapes, but their tops must always point skywards. Elegant extensions of the roof, they offer shade and coolness to the houses' vast roof terraces. In the desert coastal plain of Tihama, it's not uncommon to come across round houses built of reeds and mud plaster and covered with a thatched roof. This architecture bears witness to the passage of African pilgrims and traders through the region. In other coastal areas, the walls of the houses were made from fossilized coral. The sublime and unclassifiable historic city of Jeddah, the Gateway to Mecca, has succeeded in blending these coastal traditions with borrowings from other techniques and know-how. The finest examples of this blend are the city's tower-houses, which can be recognized by their coral stone silhouettes and façades adorned with sumptuous, slightly projecting pieces of carved wood, reminiscent of elegant moucharabiehs.Jeddah is also home to some fine examples of more recent Ottoman houses, which can be recognized by their large bay windows, bow-windows, raised bases and cut-out façades.
Architecture of Islam
Many scholars and theologians believe that the very first mosque in Medina was actually the house of the Prophet Muhammad. While nothing has survived of the building, many ancient sources have described it. Made of dried bricks, the building was square in plan, with each side measuring about 56 m. Nine rooms were built along the eastern wall and opened towards the interior; while short colonnades made of palm trunks were added to the north and south, whose extended branches provided shade and coolness. Finally, the most important element: the orientation of the prayer passed from Jerusalem to Mecca. This simplicity and sobriety drew the contours of the first Islamic architecture that was repeated throughout the Muslim world. A sobriety that can be seen in the Jawatha Mosque in Al-Ahsa, built in the seventh century, and probably the oldest in the peninsula. Look at its simple and unadorned mud brick walls, its low towers with rounded battlements, its imposing wooden door and its thatched roof. But as the centuries passed, this sobriety was abandoned in favor of more imposing and decorative structures, especially in the Ottoman period. The Prophet's Mosque in Medina is a perfect example. The enclosure of the present mosque is 100 times larger than that of the original house of the Prophet! The interweaving of the structures is astonishing. The contemporary mosque, all in white marble, surrounds the Ottoman mosque which has kept its decorations of marble and polychrome stones, its white marble columns with bases pierced by ventilation grids, its arcades with alternating white and black stones over the windows, and especially its green-grey dome and its thin and slender minarets. A juxtaposition of eras that can be found in the Al-Haram Mosque, the largest mosque in Mecca and the setting of the Kaaba. It is fascinating to note that the Kaaba, a seventh century building, has retained a certain sobriety with its square granite structure, its thick, bare walls that highlight its imposing wooden door plated with 280 kg of pure gold, while all around the Mosque unfolds an astonishing gigantism. In the Ottoman era, it was the great architect Sinan who added golden domes with calligraphy-adorned vaults, columns, slender minarets and superb marble pavements. From the 1950s, the mosque enters new phases of transformation with extensions in reinforced concrete, the addition of minarets, decorated domes and coffered ceilings, the creation of new decorations all in artificial stone, plaster and marble plywood, and the installation of a modern air conditioning system designed to cool the two million pilgrims that the new structure must be able to accommodate. A desire to impress can be seen in two more recent mosques: the Mosque of Mercy in Jeddah (1985), also called "floating mosque" because its bright white structure topped by elegant turquoise domes seems to advance on the water; and the Al-Rahji Mosque in Haifa (2010) with its four 80-meter high minarets and its 50 vermilion domes cascading down. But mosques are not the only representatives of this architecture of Islam. Saudi Arabia is also crisscrossed by the many roads of the Hajj, the pilgrimage leading the faithful to Mecca. These roads are lined with forts ensuring not only the protection of pilgrims, but also and especially those of springs, basins, cisterns and water tanks. With a square plan, organized around vast courtyards, these fortresses impress by their massiveness, reinforced by the presence of protective ramparts. In addition to this, there are more modest lodgings, while the flagship "stations" of the pilgrimage are authentic small towns with mosques and souks. On the road linking the Iraqi city of Kufa to Mecca, sections of paved roads and parts of roads protected by small walls made of large stacked stones have also been found, proving the importance of this pilgrimage route and the engineering treasures developed to fight against a hostile environment. A sense of engineering found in the Ottomans who, in the early 20th century, designed the Hejaz Railway. Nearly 2,000 bridges made of rough local stone were built, while every 20 km stations were built, organized in the manner of the original pilgrimage stations with fortifications, wells, cisterns and caravanserais. The Hajj still inspires contemporary architects, such as Mahmoud Bodo Rasch, a German architect who converted to Islam, who designed the astonishing structure of 250 parasols, each covering an area of 625m2, protecting the pilgrims in Medina.
Contemporary Saudi Arabia
The discovery of oil deposits led to an unprecedented construction boom in the country. In the 1970s, new towns and huge petrochemical complexes sprang up everywhere in the desert. At the time, Saudi citizens were even given building plots free of charge. Skyscrapers were also springing up. The most famous of this period is undoubtedly the National Bank of Commerce in Jeddah, designed by the American agency SOM. Its V-shaped silhouette, flanked by spiral parking lots, did not go unnoticed. Urbanization at breakneck speed has also forced many Bedouins to settle down. In the early 1990s, a project was launched to build houses, schools and mosques. Made from local volcanic rock, these constructions were designed to be built at low cost by the local population... but the project was soon abandoned. Faced with the constant influx of pilgrims, Mecca itself has been the focus of much attention, undergoing intense transformations, beginning in the 1970s with the creation of the Mecca Gate, a monumental arch representing a lectern. The construction of a boulevard 80 m wide and 4 km long, the creation of new neighborhoods, the construction of the Abraj Al Bait complex including the now-famous Clock Tower towering 601 m above the city...: these transformations led to the destruction of two-thirds of the historic city. In 2016, Crown Prince MBS launched his Vision 2030 plan. The aim? To open up the country to tourism in particular. The craziest structures were then built, starting with astonishing cultural and scientific centers, such as : the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, with its 18 m Tower of Knowledge and its structure covered with 350 km of stainless steel tubes designed by the Snøhetta agency; the Maraya Cultural Center in AlUla, whose name, meaning mirror, refers to the 9740m2 of mirrors covering its silhouette; or the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, for which the Zaha Hadid agency was inspired by the structure of beehives. Skyscrapers, meanwhile, continue to reach for the sky, such as the Kingdom Tower and the 1,000 m-high Jeddah Tower, projects that have fallen behind schedule. Another postponed inauguration is that of the Riyadh metro, whose main stations will be designed by Zaha Hadid, Snøhetta and Gerber Architeckten. And the country has no intention of stopping there: The Line / Neom, a vertical city 500 m high and 170 km long, with its spaceship-like appearance, seems a pharaonic project; The Red Sea Development, with its marinas, artificial beaches and hotel complexes, some of which will be designed by Norman Foster (who also drew up the plans for the Al Faisaliah Tower in Riyadh) or Kengo Kuma; the vast AlUla archaeological zone project, with the creation of new urban centres and large hotel complexes... including a project of villas carved out of the rock, signed by Jean Nouvel.
