Historic Jeddah

Time of the visit: the 29th of nov. till the 2nd of dec.2024

Al-Balad,Jeddah's historic district,is an enchanting and bewitching place,hassle free,a quiet oasis in a big ocean of houses,shopping malls,traffic jams,and faceless and boring residential areas. I stayed there three nights,and I dont regret a single minute of it. Sure, I also visited some shopping malls,the corniche, its big aquarium ,tried to enterJeddah's refinery (tentative whs,the oil industrial heritage in SA)....in vain,walked along the "Tahlia" walkway from the Serafi mall till the end of the walkway (what a sight to see all those saudis walking on a safe pedestrian street sandwiched between two busy streets),and visited some other places outside Al-Balad. Nevertheless,most of the time I passed inside Al-Balad,inside its historic district.

Jeddah's historic heart with over 650 houses built by its mercantile families is full with surprises,different souhks,mosques,cafes,restaurants,and more and more saudi tourists.What is typical of its architecture are the facades of these mercantile houses: hanging latticed teakwood windows of great artistry and craftsmanship ( the so-called "rawasheen "pl,"roshan",singular). 

Restorations were underway everywhere, but without really causing too much disruption. Significant parts of the old town have already been renovated. There are now cafes everywhere and also places with tables and chairs, public places that are not assigned to a cafe, where you can just sit down after buying an iced mango juice or a karak chai in one of the numerous shops there.

The historic district's listing as The Gate to Makkah as a UNESCO World Heritage Site may or may not have been justified,but nowadays it is just SA's most beautiful old town.Today Jeddah's airport is the gate to Makkah for a lot of pilgrims; I didnt spot a single one in Al-Balad.

The fringes of Al-Balad are still a little bit rough and neglected....ugly parking lots where people sleep inside their cars,simple and lacking any aesthetics shops full of Indians and Pakistanis, dirt in the streets,cheap eating places for the foreign workers.However, the historic district is wonderful..........clean,guards are everywhere,foreign and saudi tourists everywhere,and even local saudis from Jeddah have a stroll there in the evening. I had a chat with a local saudi family from Al-Balad who had put up a tea stand near the Al-Sharbatly house.They told me that just 10 years before the area was a nightmare with rubbish everywhere,parking cars blocking most streets,and constant car traffic.Most of the inhabitants had left the Historic District before the revitalisation began a few years ago. They were quite happy to live there now,and to be honest, I for my part think that the saudi government is doing quite a pretty good job. Al-Balad,or to be more precise,Jeddah's historic district, is far more livelier than its Bahraini whs counterpart Al-Muharraq which I for one like a lot and see a lot of potential there. 

I ate a traditional saudi meal(around 15€)  in the "Irth Culinary Boutique & Cafe Beit Al Kuttab" which only serves saudi food. There are several historic bakeries and pasteries in the neighbourhood . Lots of things are going on in that historic area after sunset...music events on public squares ....an old man waving constantly the saudi flag....a young man reciting something in arabic...and so on . 

https://www.visitalbalad.com/en.

I successfully visited almost all houses and museums(most of them are closed) I wanted to see inside Jeddah's heart. I even visited the Al Shafee mosque and listened to the iman there sipping tea and eating biscuits. Quite a lot of museums are still closed to the public but will be open within the next 6-24 months. The Nasif Palace was partly open,but the greater part is being renovated. The nearby Tariq Abdulhakim centre turned out to be more interesting than I had thought beforehand. On the other hand the souhks there are a bit underwhelming experience.However,Al-Balad's magic makes up for that little disappointment.

I stayed in the affordable and excellent Touq Balad hotel just a stone's throw away from Jeddah's historic heart. To my great surprise the bus nr13 goes directly from the airport to the big Lulu supermarket( last stop of the line) in Al-Balad,which is only around 5 min from the Touq Balad hotel.

A ride costs 20 saudi real...only cash....I was the only passenger....every 20-25 minutes. No need to take a taxi from the airport if you are not in a hurry( the bus makes a u-turn around the entire airport +15min).

All in all I enjoyed my stay in al-Balad with all my heart. Very nice whs without being outstanding

Visited in February 2024. Walking around the historical Jeddah during noon on a weekday, you'll get the place all for yourself. Not much local life here during the daytime, which is the case everywhere in Saudi Arabia. The old town is still mostly a construction site. Almost every building is undergoing renovations and none of the museums were open for the public during my visit. However, the old town is still quite picturesque with the tall buildings and their wooden balconies. 

I started my visit from the Al Bayaa Square in the northern part of the old town, where one of the old gates is located. There was a lot of buzz around here as people were building up stalls for the Jeddah half marathon. From there I started to walk towards Shafei Mosque. I found this northern part of the old town to be the most pleasant part, maybe because there was no one around, but also the buildings were there more beautiful. Rest of the old town has more non-traditional buildings in the mix. At Shafei Mosque I was invited to join a tour group and heard about the history of the mosque. The beautifully carved wooden door of the mosque is 600 years old. From the mosque I continued to Nassif House Museum which was closed for renovations. The building is beautiful and well-restored from the outside. From there I walked along the Souq Al Alawi to Matbouli House Museum which was very much closed and didn't show any signs that it was going to open for visitors any time soon. The souq was the most liveliest part of the old town with many locals doing their shopping there. At the east end of the souq is the Mekkah Gate, which was currently surrounded by a busy street and a construction site, so not the most pleasant environment. From here I slowly walked through the old town again back to where I started.

The old town is definitely the most interesting place to visit in Jeddah and deserves couple hours of strolling. I hope the museums will open soon or are already open, so the historical aspect of this district comes alive better. Some informative signs around the district would be helpful too. I'm sure it's more lively after dark, just like any place in Saudi Arabia, but for now it's just a construction site during the day. I didn't spot any cafés or other places where to sit down to enjoy the historical buildings and escape the humid heat of the coastal city.

Jeddah is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia with a population of nearly five million. The country's commercial centre and the gateway for pilgrims to Mecca. Jeddah is also considered to be the cultural centre of Saudi and the most liberal city in the country. Of course, we couldn't miss it on our journey across the country. Generally, it's an easy visit as there are regular bus and air connections not only from Saudi, but also neighbouring countries.

The drive in was surprisingly long. Not surprisingly, the city is indeed sprawling, and we passed clusters of buildings, commercial and multifunctional centers for dozens of kilometers on the highway. Then comes the attempt to get somewhere near the historic centre of Al-Balad, a World Heritage Site. Remember my previous reviews and my mindless yapping on the subject of permanent reconstruction? Well, Jeddah is no different. One entire neighborhood in the wider city center adjacent to the old city has been practically razed to the ground and is apparently being reconstructed or outright redeveloped. Some roads are blocked or traffic is being diverted because of this. Eventually we manage to get the car as close as possible to our destination, park and spend the next fifteen minutes or so trying to get around all the areas where something is actively being built and get to the part of the historic centre where we can walk. Finally we get to the historic part of Historic Jeddah. It's a pleasant, if slightly exhausting, walk - it's over 30 degrees there, even in late November, and the midday sun is burning intensely. However, we have the whole of Al-Balad practically to ourselves, as it's midday prayer time.

Jeddah became an important city in the Muslim context around 647 AD, when the third Muslim caliph, Uthman Ibn Affan, transformed it into a major port linking the Hijaz region with Mecca, replacing the port of Al Shoaib to the southwest of the holy city. It received both pilgrims and goods, and as a result the city developed into a thriving multicultural centre. Al-Balad received its World Heritage Site status for its unique architecture of tower houses with wooden features, built in the late 19th century by the city's wealthy merchants. In addition to these, you will find lower houses made out of coral stone, mosques, shops, all in narrow streets and occasionally meeting in squares. This style was once widespread across both shores of the Red Sea, but outside of Saudi Arabia, only tiny remnants of similar towns remain.

In addition to our lunchtime stroll, we stopped here the following day in the early evening, when not only was the weather friendlier, but we were suddenly greeted by open shops and cafes on the ground floors of the buildings. We also visited one of the tall tower houses that housed the museum. The interior of the house left in its original state sans some arrangement of the furniture and other exhibits did look a bit shabby. All floors and stairs were crooked, but it added to the charm. There was a well inside the house which I found interesting. Part of Al-Balad is touristy, but locals still live in its deeper recesses, and as if by magic you suddenly go from the slick exhibition area to the atmospheric streets where locals stroll, buy bread, have tea or rush to the mosque for evening prayers. Local Jeddahis also stroll through the old town in the evening, and there's a rush to park in the adjacent streets before sunset, so take note of that if you do travel by car.

So Jeddah gets inscribed - against the wishes of ICOMOS! The large bloc vote of Islamic countries present on the 2014 WHC, combined, possibly, with the unwillingness of the others to take part in anything which could be regarded as being “anti-Islamic”, meant that the “professional” objections were easily overturned. Whoever it was who decided that the title of this site which, when ICOMOS recommended non-inscription in 2011, was merely “The Historical City of Jeddah” should be changed to “Historic Jeddah – the Gate to Makkah” when it was re-nominated (in a much reduced form) for 2014 carried out a master stroke – who could vote against “THE Gate to Makkah”!? (Interestingly one of the ICOMOS recommendations - never discussed - was that the title should be changed to "Jeddah – A gate to Makkah"!)

It is interesting to compare the 2011 and 2014 nominations. The former included 3 areas of the city and, in relation to its “pilgrimage” history, ICOMOS concluded that “the impact of pilgrimage to the Holy Cities on Historic Jeddah is therefore relatively recent and today plays a minor role, as the pilgrims disembark at Jeddah International Airport, which is located miles north of the Historic City of Jeddah. The common area across the 2 nominations consists of the “central part of the historic city Al Balad”. The 2014 nomination has identified a number of buildings related to the pilgrimage which received NO mention in the 2011 evaluation so, presumably, the nomination file then didn’t major on them either! These are “Ribats” and “Wakalas”. These 2 types of structure have been moved “centre stage” in the nomination – “Wakala” being “large specially constructed buildings” where “richer pilgrims” could rent a room whilst "Ribats" are “Fortified buildings built originally for defence but also used for merchants as well as pilgrims.” The problem is that “Although wakala-s are mentioned as part of the justification for OUV, ICOMOS notes that no details are provided in the nomination dossier as to their survival or location.” (Indeed ICOMOS believes that NONE have survived!!) Of Ribats – well there are apparently 3 inside the 2014 inscribed area for which “a program of restoration has been commenced.” –but they are not specified.

We visited Jeddah in 2002, spending 1 night there and having a guided morning tour followed by a free afternoon before flying on in the evening to the mountainous south west of the country. It had become an enormous city even then (now 3.5 million people) and the centre had moved away from the Balad area which has also been cut off from the Red Sea by land reclamation. I remember that one of the glossy books for sale about the city was one entirely about its roundabouts (“Traffic circles”)! Jeddah has many of these and has installed art works on each – make a Google search if you are interested further! But Old Jeddah has not survived this enormous expansion of the city without significant losses. Wahabbite beliefs are particularly concerned that “old” things should not be “revered” in any way. If this belief can result in the destruction of early Islamic heritage sites in Mekkah and Medina it is hardly surprising that, for many years, the development of cities like Riyadh and Jeddah has been accompanied by what, at times, has seemed to be a deliberate intention to demolish the old. Against this background it is a fact to be welcomed that other Saudis are opposing this trend and have set up organizations to preserve what is left. But does what is left have OUV?

In fact, despite the revised title of the site, the main buildings on display relate more to the trading history of Jeddah than to its role in the Haj. They are all late 19th or early 20th century and the “stars” are the so-called “Tower Houses” or “Roshan” with their “Al-rawasheen” or carved wooden bay windows (Photo). They go up to 7 stories and were constructed by the “Merchant classes” for their own use. When we were there they were all occupied as private houses and we couldn’t go into any of them. Apart from the windows, they were not particularly impressive externally and often had rather tatty local stores occupying the ground floors. Some seemed quite modern with concrete walls around the traditional carved wooden windows –whether these were really authentic “tower houses” or just modern structures adopting the traditional windows in much the same way as a semi in UK might have “Tudor beams” I don’t know. The AB evaluation states “Details of six of these tower houses are provided in the nomination dossier. But ICOMOS notes that it is not stated how many of these tower houses have survived”. Another AB comment is that the best example was destroyed in 1959 during road widening!

The only building we did enter was the “Al-Naseef House”. Photos of this are on the Web but amazingly it doesn’t get even a mention in the AB evaluation despite being in the heart of al-Balid. It does have around 7 floors but whether it is strictly a “Tower house” I am not sure – it isn’t purely “traditional” in exterior design. It was built in 1872 by a wealthy merchant and must have been one of the city’s “best residences” when Abdulaziz ibn Saud captured Jeddah in 1925. He used it for some years as a royal residence when he was in Jeddah. In 2002 it was a “museum”. I remember it as “interesting” if not “outstanding” – its richly decorated interior is certainly better than its exterior and shows Turkish and other Middle Eastern influences of the period. It is pleasantly situated in front of a small square with a “historic” tree which, so rare are these, was pointed out to us!

The inscribed area is said to have 9 mosques (though ICOMOS notes that no information was provided on 7 of these whilst the other 2 are undergoing major renovations). As non-Muslims we were neither shown nor particularly recognized any. We also neither saw nor were shown any Ribats or Wakalas.

The Jeddah city wall was destroyed in 1947 and today only a few of the gates remain - heavily reconstructed and sometimes situated on ……. roundabouts!! As far as I understand it none of these figure in the inscribed site anyway

What does still remain of course is the old “urban layout” of al-Balid and we spent quite a lot of our free afternoon wandering the narrow twisting streets and up cul de sacs – but, apart from the Roshan areas, these lacked the atmosphere of many “Arabian” townscapes we have visited. Many of the buildings were poorly constructed modern concrete. The main “suqs” are excluded from the inscribed area and the only “shop” I remember gloried in the name of “Everything’s a Riyal"!!!

As to whether it should be inscribed – well I have no doubt that Saudi Arabia will ensure that the remaining 19th century buildings will be renovated and looked after to the highest standards. As ICOMOS identified, there is a lot of work to do – but Saudi isn’t short of money to do so! The result may not sit entirely comfortably with “western” standards of authenticity but the area does seem worth preserving among the headlong modernization of many Arabian cities even if it is a bit “museumified” in so doing. The site’s title rather misrepresents what is “on show” and the way in which it was inscribed departed from the “official” rigid, and possibly over-academic sequence of “document, preserve, manage and inscribe” by placing “inscription” near the start – as well as exemplifying the “political” workings of the WHC! Those who make it to Saudi Arabia will find aspects, both modern and historic, of much greater interest there than "Historic Jeddah".