A country · 99 places · 12 regions

Saudi Arabia, all of it.

99 curated places across 12 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Al-Ula · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Riyadh Province, Mecca Province, Eastern Province and Asir Province — read below as chapters, with 8 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Riyadh Province · 17 places

Riyadh Province

The ancestral home of the Al Saud family on the outskirts of Riyadh, Diriyah preserves the mud-brick ruins of the first Saudi capital, including the At-Turaif palace district inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Wadi Hanifah cuts through the settlement, and the earthen architecture of Najdi style — with its distinctive triangular parapet decorations and geometric surface patterning — is characteristic of the central Arabian building tradition. An ongoing restoration programme is progressively opening new sections of the historic precinct.

Diriyah

Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia

✦ October to April · $$

Al Masmak Fortress

Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia

✦ November to March · $

Kingdom Centre

Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia

✦ November to March · $$

All 17 places in Riyadh Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Mecca Province · 13 places

Mecca Province

A seafront fountain on the Jeddah corniche that jets water hundreds of metres into the air over the Red Sea, among the tallest of its kind. Lit at night, it has become a defining feature of the city's skyline.

✦ November to March · $

Meet King Fahd's Fountain All 13 places in Mecca Province →

Chapter III · Eastern Province · 9 places

Eastern Province

In the eastern Arabian Peninsula, the Al-Ahsa Oasis is a serial property comprising gardens, canals, springs, wells and a drainage lake, as well as historical buildings, urban fabric and archaeological sites. They represent traces of continued human settlement in the Gulf region from the Neolithic to the present, as can be seen from remaining historic fortresses, mosques, wells, canals and other water management systems. With its 2.5 million date palms, it is the largest oasis in the world. Al-Ahsa is also a unique geocultural landscape and an exceptional example of human interaction with the environment.

Al-Ahsa Oasis, an Evolving Cultural Landscape

Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

✦ October–April · $$

Qasr Ibrahim

Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

✦ November to March · $

Al Khobar Corniche

Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

All 9 places in Eastern Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · Asir Province · 8 places

Asir Province

Established in 1980, Asir National Park protects nearly 450,000 hectares of the southwestern Asir highlands, where peaks exceed 3,000 metres and the landscape receives summer monsoon rains unusual for the Arabian Peninsula. The park encompasses juniper and wild olive woodland, dramatic escarpments, and the Abha plateau at over 2,200 metres — one of the coolest inhabited places in Arabia during summer. Arabian wolves, baboons, and the endangered Arabian leopard are recorded within its boundaries.

✦ March to May; September to November

Meet Asir National Park All 8 places in Asir Province →