Saudi Arabia. Urban Heritage Treasures

T he fragrance brought by the wind from the desert is the best that exists, the most gentle of all -basically because it has no aroma. This iswhat oldBedouins believed, and it is confirmed by Ovidio Guaitawho, on this occasion, proposes many images of the impressive urban heritage of Saudi Arabia. More than a century ago, the few travelers who adventured across this desert and who wanted to get to know the real Arabia had a reason for not being perfectly satisfied. There to demoralize and irritate them was not the temperature, nor the degree of humidity, nor even the difficulty in searching for abundant drinkingwater. Their disappointmentwas due to the fact that it was necessary to travel by night, a circumstance which prevented them from seeing, admiring, appreciating the places they passed. We are more fortunate than the adventurers of old, and we can face trails and roads passable at any time of the day. This is an opportunity that permits us to discover a newrefinedworld, owing to the fact that humans are stubborn anddonot always take things lying down. On the contrary, they try to understandwhat better solutions nature may have to offer and then respectfully follow her lead. All the images offered in this volume are eloquent and inviting, perhaps even toomuch so. Theyspeakandtransmitmessages ina languagethatmustbeunderstood in its structuremadeof shapesandsubstance. Moreover,itisalanguageforged-ifnotmatured-bymaninenvironments considered inhospitable and, therefore, formed of talking elements and geometrical shapes, a languagewhich,notbychance,isderivedfromaculturecapableofmakingmannobleanddistinct. Luigi Zangheri Faculty of Architecture of the University of Florence pastPresident ICOMOS-IFLA The Nabatean tombs at Mada’in Saleh. In the following pages a decoratedwall in Dir’iyyah. Introduction المقابر النبطية في مدائن صالح، وفي في الصفحتين التاليتين جدار مزخرف في الدرعية.