Old Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
 

I just got back to Portland, Oregon, from three months in the homeland: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It's...an interesting place. I lived there, and in Riyadh (the capital) during my childhood. I'm a halfie--half Saudi and half American--but I always leaned more toward the American side, and that, coupled with an eight- or nine-year gap in my visits "home" since moving to the US, led to some pretty unexpected culture shock when I landed (in my own country!).

A couple days before I left, I headed to the old city center, the Balad, which...no longer houses any Saudis (they all spread out into the suburbs long ago), but a mix of Yemenis, Egyptians, Indians, Filipinos, etc, all barely getting by selling anything and everything in the markets scattered throughout town--spices, crummy Chinese toys, four undershirts for $2!

So...this photo set isn't representative of Jeddah (*at all*), but I still think the Balad is probably the most interesting part of the city--even though no Saudis live here. It's at once charming (er, my opinion) and really, really depressing.

For more background, some maybe-true-maybe-not stuff from Wikipedia on my city (I figure it's not exactly as well-known here as, say, Paris?):

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"Jeddah (also spelled Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda; Arabic: جدّة‎ Ǧiddah) is a Saudi Arabian city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The population of the city currently stands at over 3.4 million. It is considered the commercial capital of Saudi Arabia[1] and the wealthiest city in the Middle East and western Asia.[citation needed]"

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I'm skeptical of that "wealthiest city in the Middle East" bit. I mean, there is a ridiculous--seriously mind-boggling--amount of wealth in Jeddah, but well...the distribution leaves a bit to be desired. This is the city where the Mile-High Tower is being proposed...while people are living in houses that make the Tower of Pisa look upright!

Phew. Sorry for the essay. First photo thread of Jeddah on SSP (as far as I could tell):

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Yay! I'm a Banajah! My family used to live here.

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Oh... =( This is all that's left of the big Banajah House. Damn you, fire! Haha.

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a quickr pickr post

Nice :)

Not exactly a city you see here everyday.

very different and unusual shots

That was an interesting tour.

I love all the weird public art, and this building,

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Awesome place. Thanks for sharing. :)

Haven't been there since like 96 (or was it 97?). Thanks!

I dig it. Nice pics, Saudi Arabia looks like its got some crazy cool "public art". Do you know what any of them are for? monuments? etc?

wow - great thread - really interesting - thanks!

Nice to see

Wow, fantastic stuff!

Thanks for all the comments!

Now I feel bad that I was too lazy to get off my bum and take pictures of the rest of the city. :) Honestly, the rest of the city is filled with really tacky mansions, with a few tasteful ones scattered here and there. The mosques are usually really beautiful, though, so those would have been a nice addition to the thread. Oh well... Next time!

I don't know about all of them, but the one near the end of the thread, the fourth photo from the last (rusty pile of metal...pieces), is actually made from the old desalination plant, before they built the new one. (See the giant smoke stacks in the following picture? That's the new desal plant.)

Cool pix. . .

Jeddah is rarely showed on SSP, I can't remember a thread.
It's nice to have some Midle-eastern threads.

Great job. Very interesting shots. Thanks for posting!

Nice thread. Spent 8 years in Riyadh myself. Lived a month in Jeddah too. Do you happen to know if the fountain is still there?

Yup, it's still there. They turn it on every night around sunset. I didn't take any photos, but here's one (courtesy of Flickr user Zekizeki):

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More Wikipedia...? (Grain of salt with the superlative claims.)

King Fahd's Fountain (Arabic: نافورة الملك فهد‎) is a fountain located in the city Jeddah, Saudi Arabia named for King Fahd. It is the tallest fountain in the world, with water achieving a maximum height of 312m (1023ft). Each of the three massive pumps deliver 625 litres (165 gallons) of water per second. The water is propelled through 126mm (5 inch) nozzles at an incredible speed of 375 km/h (233 mph).

312 meters? Holy shit!

wow, very cool. Love to see it in person.

A whole world away.

:) Don't ask me why, but whenever we do something in Jeddah, we do it BIG:

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wow I like, the old city is infinitely more interesting and appealing imo, crumbling it may be, than the new carcentric one.