Your Guide to Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia Tourism Guide

An opening country

A land whose reputation is viewed through its harsh climate…

For millennia there was a natural barrier to visiting Saudi: its tough climate. Although some routes along the Sarawat Mountains along the western coast offer some slightly cooler temperatures, the lack of water and vegetation made any journey through the immense extends of rocks and sand a life-threatening experience.

But the risks of traveling until Makkah didn’t deter some fervent Muslim who did the perilous trip to perform Hajj. In the early 8th century, one attempt remained even in History as it nearly costed the life of the Abbasid princess, Zubaydah bint Ja’far, granddaughter of caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur and a wife of caliph Abu Ja’far Harun al-Rashid. Her endeavor to reach Mekkah from Kufa in today’s Iraq was such a harsh experience that she later put a lot of efforts to build a series of wells, cisterns, and shelters for every day of travel of Muslim pilgrims, meaning 20 kilometers. Those basic infrastructures are still visible today and mark the road that carries her name, the Darb Zubaydah.

… that has already welcomed millions of foreigners…

This particular climatic conditions have kept people away from this land for millennia hence locals have lived apart of the world’s main events for long. But when oil was discovered in 1938 Saudi Arabia suddenly needed substantial workforce and skills from abroad to ensure its economical development. As a result the expatriate population became more numerous than the national one and it remained as such for decades. In 2016 the proportion of expatriates was still one third of the total population of the Kingdom, with 21.1 million Saudi nationals for 10.4 million expatriates.

In addition, the land of Arabia has seen for nearly 1 500 years millions of Muslims heading towards Mekkah to perform Umrah or Hajj. In the last decades, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been home of what became the largest pilgrimage in the world, welcoming some 1,5 million foreign pilgrims for Hajj every year.

Masjid Al-Haram (photo: Bluemangoa2z)

… and that is opening to foreign tourists

In April 2016 Prince Sultan bin Salman announced that Saudi Arabia has plans to issue select visas to welcome tens of thousands of tourists a year as part of a sweeping national reform plan aimed at showcasing the country’s rich heritage, including pre-Islamic sites, and encouraging Saudis to spend some of their tourist money at home. Prince Sultan bin Salman, who is head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage and the oldest living son of King Salman, said that while the country will be opening up.

It is open for people that are doing business, for people working in Saudi Arabia, investing in Saudi Arabia, and people who are visiting for special purposes. And now it will be open for tourism again on a selected basis

HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, President & Chairman of the SCTH

A land whose reputation is viewed through its harsh climate that has already welcome dozens of millions of foreigners and that is opening to foreign tourists (author: Florent Egal)

About Tourism in Saudi Arabia

A country where tourism is emerging...

For centuries the Arabian desert was known only by Bedouins who lived there. Then when oil was discovered in 1938 the Bedouins moved away progressively from their harsh life to seek for better conditions in fleshly built modern cities. They brought with them the stories of their family and ancestors depicting the desert as a terrifying place to be absolutely avoided. On the same time expatriates from around the world started to arrive in the Kingdom but only few of them dared to face the difficult conditions that implied traveling through Saudi Arabia.

Some of the pioneers of the exploration of Saudi Arabia were among the first big wave of expatriates that were the employees of Saudi Arabian American Company (Saudi ARAMCO), the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a fully integrated, global petroleum and chemicals enterprise. Some of these expatriates started to raise the awareness about the incredible richness of Saudi Arabia and have collected their knowledge of the Kingdom in a bi-monthly magazine named Aramco World which is a great source of information about Saudi Arabia.

... and that is investing in its incredible assets...

In April 2000 the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom through established the "Supreme Commission for Tourism" (SCT) whose name changed to "Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities" (SCTA) to become the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) in 2015.

The main goal of creating the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), from the very outset, was to pay greater attention to all aspects of the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia, in its organization, development, and promotion. SCTH always looked forward to strengthening the role of tourism sector and overcome barriers to its growth, based on the immense tourism potential enjoyed by the Kingdom. Its efforts include preservation of antiquities and activation of its contribution to the cultural and economic development.

The efforts of the SCTH were rewarded by UNESCO that listed several Saudi sites among the World Heritage:

Madain Salih/Al-Hijr in 2008
Historical Diriyah in 2010
Historical Jeddah in 2014
Rock art in Jubbah and Shuwaymis in 2015

Nabatean tombs in Hegra / Maddain Saleh (photo: Florent Egal)

... but that is still not accessible to all travelers...

Today with a extended network of roads throughout the country with many fuel stations, traveling in an air conditioned 4X4 with a navigation system is a much more comfortable experience than the harsh conditions endured by Bedouins on their camels less than a century ago. But driving off-road still requires strict security rules including proper equipment as the dangers of the desert haven't faded away with modern times.

Therefore it is highly discouraged to travelers novice to desert exploration to drive off-road, especially in the sand. Even if there are still many fascinating sites that are not reachable on tarmac, the Saudi Arabia Tourism Guide recommends to ask for the services of professional tours who can ensure satisfying level of safety.

... and is building its touristic infrastructures

There are so many wonderful sites in Saudi Arabia that it is simply impossible to built infrastructures for each of them at once. Thus, if the sites that are listed as UNESCO World Heritage benefit from new facilities and many sites are being restored throughout the Kingdom, there are still a great number of places that are still difficult to reach such as the Empty Quarter or don't have high standard hotels nearby. There are also wonderful sites that are not publicized like the Wadi Qaraqir in Tabuk Province. Reason why the best way to access the hidden treasure of Saudi Arabia is to rely on tour operators. The Saudi Arabia Tourism Guide has selected some that provide the highest standard of services of the country.

Wadi Qaraqir (photo: Florent Egal)

A country where tourism is emerging and that is investing in its fascinating assets but that is not accessible to all travelers and is building its touristic infrastructures (author: Florent Egal)

Why exploring Saudi Arabia?

A large country broadly unknown...

Since the beginning of the 20th century CE the land that will become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was still a blank on the map. And a big blank as the country is alone as large as France, Spain, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Portugal, and Ireland altogether! Until its creation in 1932 only few foreign explorers had made the great adventure in the unknown through the center of the Peninsula and with limited means to establish any proper cartography of this vast territory.

Harry Saint-John Philby, British explorer and adviser of King Abdelaziz ibn Saud, was the first westerner to provide detailed descriptions of the central plateau, the Nejd. He led there several expeditions in the 30'ies till the 50'ies that led him until Yemen and during which he took notes of precious details about landscapes, historical sites, and Arab people lifestyle. He also brought back from his travels the first pictures of those remotes regions.

When his countryman Bertram Thomas performed the first recorded crossing of the Rub' Al-Khali , the largest sand dune desert in the world, from Salalah in Oman until Doha in Qatar, both northern and southern poles had already been reached for nearly 20 years.

Harry St-John Bridger Philby (Image from "The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration", London: Constable and Company, 1922)

Oil well drilling rig with airplane and men with camel, ARAMCO (SMU Central University Libraries)

Since the discovery of oil in 1938 the country has experienced a dramatic development on many regards but tourism in the Kingdom is still today a quite confidential activity practiced by few curious people only. This is mainly due to the fact that Saudi Arabia still remains as unknown to the external world as it was at the foundation of the Kingdom in 1932. Actually the terrifying reputation of the desert as a hostile and harsh place is still vivid in most people's minds, including the Saudi nationals themselves.

... that is still not accessible to every traveler...

Today with a large network of roads throughout the country with many fuel stations, traveling in an air conditioned 4X4 with a navigation system is a much more comfortable experience than the conditions endured by Bedouins on their camels less than a century ago. But driving off-road still requires strict security rules including proper equipment as the dangers of the desert haven't faded away with modern times.

And there is still the issue of tourism visas that are issued in very limited numbers, but that may change soon.

... but that hosts fascinating places

Even today, despite the extraordinary variety and the unique beauty of its landscapes, the stereotype of vast monotonous extend of sand remains the only image that comes to mind when speaking about Saudi Arabia.

But be sure that to the curious-minded people willing to see over the stereotypes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reveals its hidden treasures. And they are plenty.

Indeed, nobody will be surprised that Saudi Arabia hosts the largest sand dunes desert in the world, the mythical Rub' Al-Khali...

Grandiose extent of massive sand dunes in the Rub' Al-Khali (photo: Florent Egal)

... but who knows that on the west of this immense desert stand the high plateaus of Aseer and Al-Bahah that reach 3000 meters of altitude...

Green hills and terraces in Aseer's countryside north of Abha (photo: Florent Egal)

... and overlook the coastal plain of the Tihamah from the top of of vertiginous cliffs?

Sarawat mountain's impressive cliffs close to the village of Mohayil (photo: Florent Egal)

Who knows that some of those mountains carry countless of thousands-of-years old carvings including inscriptions using ancient scripts that have disappeared for more than a millennia?

Inscription of Dhu Nuwas in Bir Hima (photo: Florent Egal)

Who knows that all along those mountains that run through the whole country from the Yemen until Jordan are hundreds of volcanoes...

Wa'abah crater (photo: Martin Beuvelot)

...including rare white-color craters?

View on the out-of-this-world Jebel Bayda from the Jebel Abiad (photo: Florent Egal)

Who knows that along the western shore of Saudi Arabia lay hundreds of kilometers of coral reefs displaying their flashy tones through the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea?

Coral reef in Obhur (photo: Ilkka Tuohela)

Maritime birds at Farasan Islands (photo: Florent Egal)

Who knows that Saudi Arabia has dozens of kilometers of pristine beaches along such as the coral archipelago of Farasan populated by countless birds?

Who knows that the Nabataean people who built Petra in today's Jordan had their second most important city, Hegra, in today's Saudi Arabia?

Nabatean tombs in the ancient site of Hegra (Maddain Saleh), first site of Saudi Arabia listed as UNESCO World Heritage (photo: Florent Egal)

Who knows that the iconic sandstone formations of the famous Jordanian desert of Wadi Rum spread 200 kilometers south of the border with Saudi Arabia where it is named Jibal Hisma? Who knows that some rock art of the northwest of the country which is over 10 000 years old depict a time when today's arid deserts were green savannas?

Ancient rock art at Luwaee (photo: Florent Egal)

For now only few people know about those magical places. But I hope this website will help to make this number growing so that the hidden treasures of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia earn the reputation they deserve.

A large country broadly unknown that is still not accessible to all travelers but that hosts fascinating places (author: Florent Egal)

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