We used to visit Old Diriyah, a short drive from Riyadh, whose Turaif district was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 but was under restoration and not accessible to the public during our years in Saudi Arabia. Diriyah was the original home of the Saudi royal family and served as the capital of the first Saudi dynasty from 1744 to 1818.

Tim had expressed an interest in revisiting the site, so his host took him and his delegation there for dinner Tuesday evening. He said it’s now amazing – a real tourist attraction – far different from when we first saw it in 2014, when it was mainly sand and broken-down walls. Below is a picture I took in 2015, when its restoration was well underway.

UNESCO World Heritage Site, Diriyah, in 2015:



Some things change, but others never will, posted earlier: