Photos: Diriyah, the original home of the Saudi state

A view of an 18th-century palace built from mud and straw. Curved along the outskirts of Riyadh and formed on the oasis that spilt from the banks of Wadi Hanifa, Diriyah's mud-brick walls once housed a thriving desert city that was a powerhouse of culture and commerce. In Turaif district, the area's citadel-marked primary quarter was the original seat of power for the kingdom's Al Saud family. In 1727, the city was named the country's capital, laying the foundations for what would later become a unified Saudi Arabia.

Diriyah fell in late 1818 at the end of the Wahhabi war and was succeeded as the nation’s capital by the nearby settlement of Riyadh. The ruins of At Turaif were designated a Unesco Heritage Site in 2010, and the area has since been the subject of a detailed restoration plan aimed at bringing its historical legacy back to life. While work at Diriyah is still underway, ample heritage-rich sites are open to the public.

Nada Alfuraih ushers guests through an 18th-century palace built from mud and straw in Diriyah, the birthplace of the first Saudi state, a historical crossroads of pilgrims and traders, and home to one of the kingdom’s most ambitious heritage developments. Pausing in an airy assembly hall in the palace, she raves about this aspect of her country’s origin story. Her only regret is that today, nearly 300 years later, some young Saudis seem unaware of it. “I meet visitors who have no clue. They must have skipped this part of their education or something,” she told AFP. Above, Saudi tour guide Nada Alfuraih walks with Entertainment Executive Jerry Inzerillo through an 18th-century palace.

Later this year, the restored palace in the historic district of Diriyah on the outskirts of the Saudi capital Riyadh will open to the public for the first time. Exhibits throughout the palace spotlight the Al Saud family’s achievements, going back well before the kingdom’s official founding in the 1930s. The new Diriyah features attractions of a modern Saudi Arabia opening up to the world: fine dining, art galleries - even a Formula-E race track.

While the country with the Al Saud name is just 90 years old, the family dynasty traces its origins to the 1700s. Crown Prince Mohammad’s father, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, first showed interest in redeveloping Diriyah in the 1970s.

The man hired to bring this new Diriyah to life is Jerry Inzerillo, an entertainment executive from Brooklyn who had a cameo in the 2006 James Bond film “Casino Royale”. In an interview with AFP, Inzerillo talked up Diriyah’s potential, saying it could be for Saudis what the Acropolis is for Greeks and the Colosseum is for Italians. “There was a generation that said, ‘Oh, it’s just a bunch of mud houses, and that’s not our future,’” he said.

“But this king believes that the national identity and the ongoing source of pride have got to be in a rich Saudi past.” The same thinking, he said, was behind a new Founding Day holiday inaugurated in February that honours the Al Saud family’s Diriyah-era leaders. Asked about Crown Prince Mohammed’s role, Inzerillo said he “approved every rendering” of Diriyah and had personally spent up to 30 hours painstakingly reviewing its street layout. The palace features zones for historical re-enactment, sword-dancing, falconry and horse shows.

Saudi tour guide Nada Alfuraih walks inside an 18th-century palace. Elsewhere in Diriyah, venues have already hosted Pitbull and the Swedish House Mafia concerts and the 2019 “Clash on the Dunes” heavyweight boxing match between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz. Developers have been mindful not to turn Diriyah into “a theme park”, Inzerillo said, though he added that, in his view, heritage and entertainment are “highly compatible”.“Diriyah 300 years ago had music. It had the best musicians in the area. It had art, it had painters... What happens is that if a society is going to be fulfilled and happy, it has to be entertained,” he said. “There’s not a vulgarity to entertaining.”

Situated on the oasis of Wadi Hanifa and its tributaries, Diriyah was a powerhouse of culture, academia and commerce, a historical crossroads for pilgrims and traders travelling between Asia, Europe and Africa and a beacon of knowledge and cultural exchange.