Saudi Arabia

Closed to non-religious tourists until 2019, Saudi Arabia is now developing tourism and opening up its five UNESCO sites for visitors. This oil-rich nation is home to vast sand dunes, ancient cities and fertile mountains as well as having kilometres of coastline on the Red and Arabian Seas.

The Arabian Peninsula has a history stretching back millennia, home to ancient civillisations and on vital trade routes including the Incense Road Frankincense Trail. Traders passing through and citizens, left their mark with rock art scattered across the country, showing pictorial details of life at the time. Explore the desert oasis region of AlUla, with over 200,000 years of human history and great civilisations such as the Nabatean Kingdom and Hegra, sister city to Petra, to discover.

The birth of Islam has shaped the more recent history of the country as well as the architecture and now dictates everyday life. The holy cities of Medina and Mecca are haram to non-Muslims but there are still plenty of religious sights to visit as well as the cities of Jeddah and Riyadh. The Empty Quarter, or Rub al Khalili is the largest sand desert on the planet and occupies a third of the Arabian Peninsula.

As with so many countries, the image we see in our media is rarely representative of the lives of everyday people, by visiting Saudi we hope to be able to look behind the stereotypes, engage in conversation with different people, learn about life and exchange ideas and hopes for the future.