On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
arrieve
The final set of Saudi pictures are from Yanbu.
There are actually three cities comprising Yanbu. Yanbu Al-Bahr is the main city on the Red Sea coast where the ship docked. The other one we visited is Yanbu Al-Nakhal, a group of villages about an hour’s drive from the coast that used to be one of the hubs on the spice and incense route between Egypt and Yemen.
Yes, this is Saudi Arabia. I took this picture through the bus window on the drive to Yanbu Al-Nakhal. We passed plenty of desert, and herds of camels grazing along the side of the road, but I was not expecting those mountains, or the greens from the recent rains.
One of the villages in Yanbu Al-Nakhal.
I loved the landscape: date palms, mud-brick ruins, mountains. But it was hot–at least twenty degrees hotter than the coast, and though we didn’t walk that far, every time there was a bit of shade, we’d all huddle there for a bit of respite.
More of the landscape.
This cracked me up. There was literally nothing around except some date palms and the road back to the village, but of course there were couches. Pink couches.
I’m sensing a pattern here. Back in the main city, along the water, a giant sign and a lighthouse.
The main square in the historic district.
There wasn’t nearly as much construction going on in the old town in Yanbu as there was in Jeddah, but there was a lot of renovation going on.
One building I didn’t get a picture of was famous for T.E. Lawrence having lived there. (Or maybe just stopped by at one point in 1916. Anywhere Lawrence stayed for more than a minute is on somebody’s guided tour.) And though I had read online that this building was already renovated and was now a cultural center, the building our guide pointed out was basically a ruin. So I think he had the wrong building. But it was worth it just to hear the charming way he talked about “Lawrence of Arab.”
“You want to know about him, there is a movie you can watch. It’s called his name, Lawrence of Arab. It’s three hours long!”
The Night Market is near the main square. It began 500 years ago as a gathering place for merchants and sailors. I admit to being disappointed—it was small and dark, and there was nothing I was remotely interested in buying. I finally bought an obviously mass-produced ceramic mug with some hand painting on it just because the young woman in the shop looked so hopeful when I walked up.
This girl was hovering around the edge of our tour group, obviously curious, so I said hello to her and she said hello back. When she got in the car with her parents she waved, and I gestured with the camera to ask if I could take her picture.
And I think that’s a perfect final image for my brief but memorable visit to Saudi Arabia.
Ending the Day on a Light Note
Baud
Landscape is gorgeous. I wouldn’t have guessed. Thanks for the series. You have a good eye for photos.
Jeffg166
The phone rang this morning at 2:12. It was a robocall from the City of Philadelphia about the summer youth job fair tomorrow. I have been awake since then. Emailed the office to tell this it wasn’t appreciated.
Lapassionara
Thanks for sharing these lovely photos.
YY_Sima Qian
Very nice!
stinger
Nice series — and final image!
delphinium
Thanks for sharing your journey. Probably won’t ever get to visit Saudi Arabia so it was great to see all your wonderful photos.
Trivia Man
Likely the closest i will ever get to KSA, very appreciative of the peek. In the region i contend that Iran still has the most promise as a true ally to the US, but obviously not as a theocracy. So much history and culture being actively repressed. KSA has a very interesting recent back story which definitely has value, but the distortion of sudden, vast wealth is an incredible change in their circumstances.
J.
I’ve really enjoyed this series too. As Baud wrote, you have a good eye. And what a fascinating look at another culture. Thank you for sharing.
pieceofpeace
I share the others’ appreciation for your series. And those mountains, in S.A., magnificent!!
Thank you
Trivia Man
That mountain picture is a gem, definitely not image we call to mind. Id like to see the geo-guessers try that one!
Geminid
@Trivia Man: As far as important countries in that region go, I think Turkiye is in fact already a good ally for the US. They pursue and independent foreign policy that is at times at odds with ours, but they also serve as NATO’s southern cornerstone, with the alliance’s 2nd largest army, 3rd largest air force and a sizable navy trained and equipped to Nato standards
Turkiye and Iran are in ways similar nations; they both have about 85 million fairly well educated citizens and are well along the path of industrial development. Turkiye is more prosperous but it is also in a much more economically dynamic region. And in a fortunate location as well; when the Turkish Republic began in 1923 Istanbul/Constantinople had already anchored two large empires for 1500 years.
The two countries are both Muslim, but have different religious traditions. Their political systems are very different, but I think there is a real possibility Iran’s will change for the better before too long. Then, Iran may well be an ally of the US again.
Layer8Problem
I would so very much love to travel through there and see what you saw. Thank you so much for letting us see some part of it and telling us what you experienced.
cope
What a nice wrap up to your trip, thank you. Is that a gondola system in picture #7?
When we lived in the desert in S.A., I remember the one time it actually rained fairly heavily and, for a few days, the desert sands bloomed. There were even small ponds of standing water between dunes that I remember. My buddies and I had to dig a hole under the chainlink fence that surrounded the town to get out into the wild but we dragged an old wooden crate with us to use as a leaky raft.
Thanks again, where to next?
eclare
Thank you for these photos! I love the thumbs up that girl has in the final photo, along with her fierce nail. The women will rise up some day.