Riyadh Travel Guide

City of old Diriyah

The ruins of the historically significant city of Diriyah, standing imposing and silent in the desert about 12 miles (20km) northwest of Riyadh city centre, provide an interesting excursion. The city, stronghold of the powerful Saud family, was the site of an important Islamic reform movement in around 1745, when two influential Imams called for the people to return to the true faith and abandon heresy, polytheism and superstition. The city was once the biggest in the Arab Peninsula, but was overtaken by Riyadh after being destroyed by the Turks in the early 19th century. The ruins of many of the mud-brick buildings remain to be explored.