Ang Manlilikha

In my first week of work in Riyadh that was in February 1997, one thing that came to my mind was to take some trips outside the city. I wanted to visit some of the historical places, including mountains of rock and mountains of sand dunes, which are good places for excursions on weekends and holidays.

It was a Friday. With my peers, we visited on some of Riyadh’s treks. First was a trip to Hidden Valley. At five o’clock in the morning, we started our trip, as no-one wants to drive under the sun.

On our way to Hidden Valley, I saw mountain of rocks standing robustly on each side of the highway. I heard the sound of winds haunting, and whispering in every corner of the mountain – calling them that the Sun was about to rise.

Facing to the South was another spot of great beauty delighted my eyes, a red mountain of sand dunes that resembled a maiden in red, lying down with the mountain rocks at her sides and waiting for someone to come and feel her beauty.

At seven, we reached our destination, by passing through an isolated pass between high fortresses – like rock in the Tuwaiq wall. Our cars rumbled up and down with the shrubs to right, left and white dust. As we drove up the soil – covered path of Hidden Valley between piles of gravel, was a Pinnacle Valley that called because of the pillar of rock that stands near the entrance. We stopped driving when the track got rough.

Soon everybody left the car and went around to the area, and embraced the beauty of nature. We photographed the mountains around us as our souvenirs. We also went for a hike, did some mountain climbing and had a lot of fun together.

What a wonderful place to see! I was surprisingly amazed to see such beauty that only nature can provide. It can easily charm you and let you believe that this place is not just a desert of sands, but also a place of beautiful rocks and mountains ready to be embraced and enjoy. Most amazing of all was the absence of running water, to bathe her for added beauty. A completely dry valley, but yet a surprisingly beautiful one!

At 2:00 PM, we started driving again out from the Hidden Valley, going to our next destination, the Old Diriyah. It took us a one-hour drive to reach the place. The Old Diriyah, according to the recent history of Saudi Arabia, was a kingdom. The family of Saud once ruled the kingdom in the early 1800s. The remains of those ruined palaces were built of mud bricks and stones, supported with some blunt timber. The Old Diriyah can be reached by a two-wheel drive and is only few kms away from the city center of Riyadh.

In its heyday, Diriyah had approximately 5,000 residents and 400 to 500 guests daily fed in the ruler’s palace. In addition, there were thousands of fighting men, available to do battle for the ruler. However, in 1818, Diriyah was laid waste, after a six – months’ siege by the Ottoman Empire.

When we entered inside the circumference of the kingdom, we saw that the ruins rise romantically above the palms, and can be seen from the highway. Without special permission, you can visit the place especially on a weekday morning, and you can have the place to yourself to enjoy.

To get an idea of the traditional design of the old houses, we had passed through the narrow old streets, saw those rooms open off a central courtyard, partially open to the sky, and partly covered by an upper story.

The most picturesque of the Diriyah is the Salwa palace area, located on the left side of the main entrance. The palace is a four-story. During its heyday, the palace served as the administrative seat of government, and as well as the residential complexes.

In order to get an idea of what the town looked liked at the height of its power, we walked up to the highest part of the area, where the palace of Prince Saud bin Saud has been completely rebuilt. The palace is adjacent to the smaller palace of Prince Naser bin Saud, built of mud – bricks in a traditional way. The ruined Old Diriyah is really an attraction on treks.

After some exhausted hours of roaming around the area and taking photographs of those remains, as our souvenirs, we left the place heading the city center passing through the old airport road.

On our way home, one of my peers has suggested that before going home, it was better to drop in at Al-Batha Square Supermarket. Al-Batha was one of the oldest market place in Riyadh and it was my first time to see the place too. For its literal meaning it is a place for relaxation. It was developed into an exemplary market place found in Riyadh City, where everything is there for the shopping pleasure and comforts.

Al Batha Square was designed to meet the desired outlook and availability for shoppers. The market is serving the best quality of commodities imported from other countries. It is located alongside of Al Batha Street, now known as King Abdul Aziz Street.

I do not have the intention to advertise the market but only to share them to you what I got there and the overwhelming pleasure I experienced when we stopped at Al-Batha Square. It was really something to enjoy!

It was around 5:30 PM we arrived at Al-Batha. I remembered that my wife’s birthday was approaching, so I would have to buy a greeting card for my wife. When I got out from the car, I was surprised to see hundred of shoppers scattered inside the circumference of the area; some with bags full of good items. I looked around to the market and saw all groceries, stores; stalls were wide open for the shoppers. I had walked around the market and did some window-shopping.

First, I stopped at five buildings, where they sold home appliances, furniture, office equipment, mobile phones and kitchenwares at very low prices. There were big sales from 20,30,40,50, 60 and 75% discounts of imported items from England, Germany, USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, Paris and other countries.

What impressed me so much was the sales representatives’ way of entertaining customers. They attracted many shoppers to buy their products with their sweet smiles and being polite to customers.

In these buildings, I noticed that Saudi Gold and jewelry were in different karats from 21 and 22, and sold from SR. 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44 per gram but now the price of per gram has reached already from SR.110 to SR.120.

Aside from gold and jewelry items, there were also imported perfumes from Paris, USA and other countries. There were also different kinds of watches for men, women and children. At the left side of the square were groceries, stores and stalls for dry and wet items such as, can goods, fruits and vegetables, fresh and frozen meats, chickens and fish and other sea products.

Inside the circumference, there were banks that served for remittances to any part of the world. The Arab National Bank, located at the second floor of the Telemoney building. The Al Rajhi Bank, located at the second floor of the Al Rahji building, they were worldwide express remittances serving customers for their remittances. Their banking hours were from 9 am to 11 pm daily except holiday season. Aside from those banks there were also door-to-door express remittances including sea and air cargo services to any part of the world.

Outside the building, I could imagine how old Al Batha market is. I remembered my Uncle Timmy, who came to Riyadh somewhere in the late 70s as a construction worker. He was one of a hundred builders of Al-Batha market. It has a wide parking area for cars, cabs, and automobile, located at the center part of the square.

The square has public rest rooms available for shoppers, a place for ‘salah’ and a post office for posting letters. There were restaurants and fast food outlets. They served a variety of delicious foods and bakeries, and sweet pastries-specialties. There were also pharmacies for your medicines and vitamins. Everyday the Al Batha Square offered some discounted items, from children wears, sport wears, as well as for men and women’s clothing and other imported garments.

If you needed for some haircuts, manicure, pedicure as well as hair dying and hair curling, the barbershops especially for males are wide open for your parlor pleasure. The barbers are Filipinos, Indians, and other nationalities.

What a marketplace! I would not hesitate to recommend this to you. Maybe one day you would have a trip with your family and friends to Riyadh. Just remember to stop at Al-Batha market.

After a couple of hours roaming around the market, the only thing I got was a card worth five Riyals. The design has some camels walking in the desert and the greeting words read, “I would miss you in the desert.”