Tradycyjne materiały budowlane Arabii Saudyjskiej i ich wykorzystanie

For most of us, Saudi Arabia seems to be an exotic country - a land of rich sheikhs, oil and gas deposits, camels and deserts. Until recently, it was closed to outside visitors, but a few years ago the situation changed and now you can not only enter the country, but also travel around it without restriction. Its area is almost 7 times larger than Poland, covering about 2/3 of the territory of the Arabian Peninsula, with a population of only about 32 million, more than 53% of which is concentrated in several metropolises (Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, Al Damman). Large areas of the country are sparsely populated and covered by desert, including the world’s larg-est sand desert, Ar Rab al Khali. Small villages and settlements dominate, and some of the population still leads a nomadic lifestyle, following herds of camels. It is also an area with a diverse geological structure and a rich, centuries-old history. A kind of synthesis of these two aspects are old, historic buildings - their location, architecture, and above all, the materials from which they were built. The paper has the character of geological snapshots of the journey, showing these elements as examples of well-preserved or restored old buildings in some places, such as Thee Ain, Rial Almaa, Dhahran Al Janub, Jeddah, Hegra, Al Ula, Yanbu and Riyadh. Its aim is to present traditional building materials that have been used for centuries in the territory of present-day Saudi Arabia, and to draw attention to the untapped geotourism potential of the places where they were used. Analysing traditional building materials and their use provides valuable information on a regional material culture, as well as on the geodiversity of the region. Many buildings can therefore be admired not only as works of architecture and art, but also as geotourist attractions.

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Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MNiSW, umowa nr POPUL/SP/0154/2024/02 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki II" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki (2025).