Heritage village in the frame: The 600-year-old Thi Ain Heritage Village in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Al-Baha province is one of the Gulf region’s most eye-catching archaeological sites.
Built as a citadel on top of a hill, and surrounded by banana trees and fruit orchards, the village has almost 60 multi-story houses built of stone and held together by mud and mortar.
Under a Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) development plan, the village will become an economic, tourism and cultural resource, with job opportunities for local communities and tourist guides. The Saudi government has spent more than SR16 million ($4.265 million) on restoration work in the village.
Duhaim Al-Duhaim captures the heritage village’s beauty in this award-winning photo for the Colors of Saudi contest organized by SCTH.
ThePlace: The 600-year-old Thi Ain Heritage Village in Al-Baha
ThePlace: The 600-year-old Thi Ain Heritage Village in Al-Baha
- The Saudi government has spent more than SR16 million ($4.265 million) on restoration work in the village
Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom
RIYADH: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Pakistan’s Chief of Defense Forces Asim Munir discussed Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom, amid the escalating military conflict in the Middle East.
“We discussed Iranian attacks on the Kingdom and the measures needed to halt them within the framework of our Joint Strategic Defense Agreement,” Prince Khalid wrote on social media early on Saturday.
“We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.”
The US and Israel began a large-scale military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has since attacked a number of sites across the Gulf.
Tehran has also attacked US and Israeli military assets as the war as escalated, impacting lives in the peaceful Arabian Gulf peninsula and risked shaking the global economy as Iran continued restricting energy shipping along the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi Defense Ministry said a number of drones had been shot down that were targeting the Shayba oil field in the Empty Quarter on Saturday.
A drone attacked the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday causing a minor fire, but no one was hurt in the incident.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” in September, pledging that aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on both.
Separately, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, the Saudi interior minister, received a call from his Pakistani counterpart Raza Naqvi, who condemned the blatant attacks targeting the Kingdom and affirmed his country’s solidarity in confronting any threats to the Kingdom’s security and stability, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
