(A view of the ruins of the city of Diriyah, which are being restored, 20km (12 miles) west of Riyadh, September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Fahad Shadeed)
Climb the rickety ladder through the Emir Omar bin Saud Palace courtyard in crumbling Diriyah and the image of old Saudi Arabia suddenly appears in an adobe roofscape set against dark green palms.
The caramel tones of the mud walls, the smell of dust mingling with water and the muffled clanging of hammer on stone belong not to the kingdom’s impoverished past, however, but a restoration project costing at least $133 million.
It was in Diriyah that the ruling al-Saud family first rose to power, and in memorialising its ruins, the authorities are celebrating a telling of national history that puts the dynasty and its clerical allies front and centre.
As capital of the first state built by the al-Saud in alliance with the revivalist cleric Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab around 270 years ago, Diriyah is the Saudi Camelot.
