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Excursion
To find an example of traditional Arabian architecture involved a 2 hr bus ride north to an earthen village rebuilt and perhaps over-restored to give an idea of urban life on the peninsula before oil. Few people seemed to be living there. Like surviving examples of indiginous architecture around the world, it has become a tourist attraction.
Our bus ride north did provide some examples of indigenous life however, in the tented sheep camps along our route and in the ceremonial hospitality at each stop. And for all its western veneer, indigenous Saudi culture is still an overwhelming presence in the daily dress, deeply conservative religion and, no doubt, in the strong family life that takes place in large, walled compounds filling up Riyadh's urban grid.
To find an example of traditional Arabian architecture involved a 2 hr bus ride north to an earthen village rebuilt and perhaps over-restored to give an idea of urban life on the peninsula before oil. Few people seemed to be living there. Like surviving examples of indiginous architecture around the world, it has become a tourist attraction.
Our bus ride north did provide some examples of indigenous life however, in the tented sheep camps along our route and in the ceremonial hospitality at each stop. And for all its western veneer, indigenous Saudi culture is still an overwhelming presence in the daily dress, deeply conservative religion and, no doubt, in the strong family life that takes place in large, walled compounds filling up Riyadh's urban grid.
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Home | Places | Saudi Arabia 1 2
