Riyadh

Riyadh is one of the world's most rapidly transforming cities — a capital that has gone from a deeply conservative, largely closed society to an internationally recognised tourism destination within just a few years. Saudi Arabia only began issuing tourist visas in 2019, and the Vision 2030 programme launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has fundamentally reshaped what it means to visit the Kingdom. Today, Riyadh has cinemas, live concerts, international sporting events, and a restaurant scene that is genuinely competing with Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The pace of change is disorienting and fascinating in equal measure.

The historical core of Riyadh is centred on Al Masmak — the clay mud-brick fortress where Ibn Saud launched his audacious 1902 raid that recaptured the city from the Rashidi clan and began the unification of the Saudi state. A spear tip from that raid remains embedded in the original wooden gate. Nearby, the Diriyah UNESCO World Heritage Site preserves the At-Turaif district — the 18th-century mud-brick palaces of the original Saudi capital — in a state of ongoing, ambitious restoration. The National Museum of Saudi Arabia, with eight galleries tracing the Peninsula from prehistoric times to the present, is among the finest history museums in the Arab world.

Beyond the city, the Edge of the World is Saudi Arabia's most dramatic natural spectacle — a 300-metre sheer escarpment 75km northwest of Riyadh where the Tuwaiq Mountains drop vertically to an endless Jurassic seabed plain. A 4x4 excursion to watch sunset over this landscape, with nothing but flat desert in every direction for a hundred kilometres, is one of the most powerful natural experiences in the Middle East. It is a reminder that beneath Riyadh's towers and transformation lies an ancient land of extraordinary geological drama.