Saudi Arabia
A misty mountain region unlike the desert, then a village with facades painted in ancestral geometric patterns
Saudi Arabia
A journey through south-western Saudi Arabia, the opposite of the country's desert image: the Asir Mountains, rising to nearly three thousand metres and benefiting from the Indian monsoon for a cool, misty climate unique in the kingdom, then Rijal Almaa, a museum-village of stone houses decorated with geometric patterns painted according to a women's tradition called al-qatt al-asiri, UNESCO-listed.
When
March to May | Sept to Nov
Price
From 2 900€ excl. flights
(based on 2 people sharing)
How long
6 nights
Ideal length
Days 1-2
The first chapter unfolds in Abha, capital of the Asir province perched over two thousand metres up, whose temperate climate makes it a popular summer destination for Saudis themselves, at odds with the kingdom's desert image. The banks of fog that regularly envelop the summits, carried by the Indian monsoon reaching this south-western tip of the peninsula, nourish a juniper forest found nowhere else in the country.
Day 1
The Jebel Soudah cable car
A cable car ascent to the summit of Jebel Soudah, the kingdom's highest point, offering views over the fog banks clinging to the juniper-covered slopes.
Day 2
The traditional market and terraced villages
A visit to Abha's traditional market, then a drive through the region's terraced farming villages, where barley and coffee have been grown on mountainsides for centuries.
Days 1-2
The road to Rijal Almaa, a fortress-village of over sixty stone-and-wood towers built across several storeys on a mountainside, now preserved as an open-air museum of traditional Asir architecture. The interior facades of many houses carry the colourful geometric patterns of al-qatt al-asiri, a pictorial art passed down from mother to daughter for generations and inscribed on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list in 2017.
Day 1
The stone towers of the fortress-village
A guided visit to the stone-and-wood towers of Rijal Almaa, some as tall as eight storeys, and the local museum tracing the village's history as a caravan crossroads.
Day 2
An introduction to al-qatt al-asiri art
A workshop with a local al-qatt al-asiri artist, a women's pictorial art of colourful geometric patterns passed down from mother to daughter, before a walk through the village lanes.
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