Architecture in Jeddah
Jeddah in western Saudi Arabia, is the largest city in the Makkah Province and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh.
The city has a varied cityscape with architecture styles split between the Old City with it’s traditional multistories and merchant houses that are very typical of Saudi culture and the new modern developments.
The Old City is losing some ground to the new developments popping up all over the city but a lot of the good buildings are now heritage buildings and will be protected.
Tourism and Pilgrims have caused a huge jump in the number of hotels in Jeddah with hajj pilgrims increasing a lot recently and there are said to be about 2.5 million pilgrim visitors every year now. The picture above is of the Radisson Blu Hotel which is situated in the city’s business district and is a good example of the type of architecture being built in the city now.
Some other notable landmarks and buildings include the NCB Tower which was the highest tower in Saudi Arabia when it was first built in the mid 80’s. The Jeddah Municipality Tower is now one of the highest buildings and is the headquarters of the metropolitan area or Jeddah.
A building to look forward to is the Mile-High Tower that is being proposed by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal and when it is completed it will be the tallest skyscraper in the world.
