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08 April 2022

Rijal Almaa

Rijal Almaa is a village located about 50 km west of Abha, in the southwest of Saudi Arabia and is more than 900 years old. The village had an ideal location through which it linked the people coming from Yemen and the Levant through the Holy City of Makkah and Medina and as a result became a regional trade center. It contains around 60 multi-story buildings made of stone, clay and wood and has a number of long and old fortresses. On the outside of the stone square towers, there are numerous patterns made up of white quartz. The village includes several buildings, which consist of several floors, some reaching six floors that were made of stones with colored wooden windows. They also contain inscriptions that appear on the interior walls of rooms. The art used in these inscriptions is known as the "Al-Qatt art", in which harmonious shapes and colors are usually placed by village women. In the outer courtyards of the houses, there are some wooden chairs and furnished mats, with shapes colored in green, white, yellow, and red, also present on the windows and wooden doors. It is currently on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage and over time may become a full UNESCO World Heritage site.