Our wise leadership pays attention to historical and archeological landmarks since the establishment of the first and second Saudi states. The era of the founder, King Abdulaziz – may God rest his soul in peace – witnessed an important stage of exploration trips carried out by European travelers and scholars on the antiquities and heritage of the Kingdom. During his reign, a group of historians and writers also began to emerge who wrote their observations and impressions of the Kingdom's history and its cultural and heritage heritage.
We do not bring anything new if we say that the land of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a spacious theater for a huge number of civilizations that have successively inhabited this part of the world. One million square kilometers, equivalent to a quarter of the area of Europe, or the area of: England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal combined!
Therefore, it was very natural for the Kingdom to constitute a large cultural and heritage storehouse, as evidenced by the fact that it has six sites on the UNESCO World Heritage Register, namely: Madain Saleh, Al-Turaif neighborhood in Diriyah, Historical Jeddah, rock paintings in Hail, Al-Ahsa Oasis, Hima wells, While work is underway to register new sites, and to develop 130 historical mosques included in the numbering list in the 13 regions of the Kingdom, as part of the Prince Muhammad bin Salman project for the development of historical mosques, noting that the first phase of the project ended with the development of 30 mosques.
In conjunction with this proposition, the Kingdom joins the international community in celebrating the World Day of Sites and Monuments, which UNESCO has celebrated since 1982, on April 18, and chose for it this year a significant slogan (Heritage in Transformation), to indicate the dangers of looting and illegal trafficking in heritage. Human rights, especially in conflict areas, while the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) called for the integration of cultural heritage into the economic cycle, and its protection as a human heritage for future generations.
The Heritage Authority interacted with this day in a distinguished way, as it translated the directives of the Ministry of Culture to show the Kingdom’s role in protecting, developing and preserving heritage, by organizing festive activities in the King Abdulaziz Historical Center, during the period 18-23 April, and in the context of the Ramadan season in Riyadh, to Alongside various cultural activities, interactive exhibitions, live performances, handicrafts and crafts, falconry events, camel shoeing and Khawlani coffee, and everything that embodies the heritage of Saudi societies, and shows them as centers of civilizational radiation par excellence.
It is noteworthy that interest in the Saudi cultural and human heritage has taken a rapid upward trend in recent years, based on what was stipulated in (Vision 2030) that culture is one of the components of quality of life, and in light of the directives of the leadership seeking to develop various development sectors, including the cultural sector, of course. Within the Kingdom's strategy to diversify sources of income and reduce dependence on the oil economy.
Fatima Al-Othman