الرياض (ar-Riyād)

الرياض (ar-Riyād)¹ is the capital of العربية السعودية (al-Arabiyah as-Su'udiyah)² and is at the center of an oasis. It boasts about 5.2 million people.⁴ Under the leadership of the Sa'ud family, it replaced nearby الدر9ية (ad-Dir'iyah)³ as the center of Wahabism, an Islamic reform movement.

Two skyscrapers mark an axis through the city: at one end is Kingdom Centre, the tallest local completed building,⁵ and, at the other, al-Faisaliyah Center. The Kingdom Center has an inverted arch at its top, and uses repeated motifs of elipses in its internal architecture and furnishings. The al-Faisaliyah Center has a curved-spire shape and was the tallest building before the Kingdom Center was built.⁶ Other popular sites are the Qaṣr as-Maṣmak, a restored 19th century fortress; the King Abdul Aziz Military Museum; and the ar-Riyād Water Tower, whose shape is a flat-topped striped funnel.

The city has an important airport.

External references

Kingdom Centre building, ar-Riyād

Historical Maps

Footnotes

1. Or Riyadh.
2. Saudi Arabia in English.
3. Also called Dir'iyah or, in English, Deraiya.
4. World-gazetteer.com, accessed 1/26/2013. The most recent figure was the calculation for 2012. The low figure in the table is the 1992 census; the high figure the 2004 census.
5. The mixed use Burj Rafal tower is topped out at over 1000 feet, but is not open as of January, 2013. The Kingdom Centre is also called al-Mamlaka Tower.
6. Information about these buildings comes from emporis.com, accessed 1/26/2013.