Saudi archaeological treasures will come to Riyadh

Residents and visitors in Riyadh are waiting for the return of the “Roads of Arabia” exhibition of Saudi archaeological treasures, which has been exhibited in international museums since 2010.
The exhibition will arrive at the National Museum in Riyadh for 50 days starting Tuesday, November 7, 2017, the same day the Kingdom’s Antiquities Forum will be held, organized by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), supported by King Salman.
The exhibition concluded at the end of August at the Seoul National Museum in South Korea, the exhibition’s second stop on its Asian tour after Beijing last year, which was the eleventh stop on its international tour. The artifacts had been hosted by four European and five US cities.
In Europe, it was displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2010; La Caixa Foundation in Barcelona; the Hermitage Museum in Petersburg and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
In the US, the exhibition was hosted by the Sakler Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, followed by the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh; the Fine Art Museum in Houston, Texas; the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri; and finally, at the Asian Arts Museum in San Francisco.
Jeddah key destination for tourism in Kingdom
Jeddah province has topped other areas in the Kingdom as the main tourism destination in the areas of exhibitions and conferences, local media said.
Jeddah has maintained its tourism, economic and commercial importance thanks to its geographical location and proximity to international travel and trade, and foreign markets.
In the first half of the current year, Jeddah hosted 1,536 functions, or 29.9 percent of the Kingdom’s overall functions.
Jeddah’s importance also comes from its 350 shopping and commercial centers, or nearly 25 percent of the total centers in the Kingdom. For its unique location, Jeddah attracted a series of global companies, economic institutions and hotels. It also dominated other provinces in the Makkah region in hosting functions, conferences and exhibitions.
The director general of the SCTH in the Makkah region, Mohammed Al-Amri said Jeddah has 59 official locations to host functions, conferences and exhibitions, or 20 percent of the authorized locations in the Kingdom. Makkah region maintains 90 authorized locations, or 31 percent of the Kingdom’s total, he said.
He said some 1,682 functions and conferences were held in the Makkah region, where Jeddah alone held 1,536 functions.
Al-Amri attributed to the strong infrastructure in the Makkah region, in general, and Jeddah, in particular, which qualified them to host conferences and events organized by government and private sector agencies, and attended by thousands of participants from inside and outside the Kingdom.