At-Turaif District in ad-Dir'iyah

Mudbrick palaces rising beside the ad-Dir'iyah oasis mark the spot where the Saudi state began. Founded in the 15th century northwest of present-day Riyadh, at-Turaif became the House of Saud's first capital and, through the 18th and early 19th centuries, the seat of its temporal power and of the Salafiyya reform movement. Its surviving citadel and urban fabric showcase the distinctive Najdi architecture of central Arabia. UNESCO inscribed the district in 2010.