DiscoverRiyadh

A UNESCO mudbrick city where the first Saudi state was born, a cliff edge that drops away into nothing, and a modern capital rewriting itself in real time — this is where Pangaea takes travellers to see the Kingdom's past and its future standing side by side.

Ancient
Heritage

Desert
Escapes

Modern
Capital

THE DESTINATION

What Riyadh Is

Heritage

Diriyah — Where the Kingdom Began

At-Turaif in Diriyah is Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site — the mudbrick capital of the first Saudi state, founded in 1727. Its sand-coloured walls and watchtowers have stood on the edge of Wadi Hanifah for three centuries, and today the entire district has been restored into a living heritage quarter of museums, galleries and traditional Najdi courtyards, without losing the silence of the old city underneath it all.

Old Riyadh

Al Masmak and the Old Souq

In the heart of Qasr Al-Hukm district stands Al Masmak Fortress, the thick-walled clay fort where King Abdulaziz's 1902 raid reunified Riyadh and set the founding of modern Saudi Arabia in motion. Steps away, the covered alleys of Souq Al-Zal still trade in antiques, rugs and silver the way they have for generations — one of the last true old-city souqs left in the capital.

Nature

Edge of the World

Ninety minutes from the skyscrapers, the Tuwaiq escarpment drops away in a sheer 300-metre cliff that locals simply call Edge of the World. It is one of the most dramatic viewpoints in the Arabian Peninsula — a place to stand at the literal edge of a plateau that once formed the shoreline of an ancient sea, and watch the sun set over a desert with no end in sight.

Modern Capital

Desert Traditions, Modern City

What makes Riyadh unusual is how close its two identities sit to each other. A camel trek through the dunes on the city's outskirts is barely an hour from Riyadh Boulevard, King Abdullah Financial District and the record-breaking crowds of Riyadh Season — proof that in the capital, centuries-old desert life and a fast-modernising skyline are neighbours, not opposites.

However you want to experience it — a guided walk through Diriyah, an afternoon in the old souq, or a sunset at the Edge of the World — here's everything Riyadh has on offer through us right now.

01 — JOURNEY