This museum is undeservedly forgotten by local bloggers. Honestly, I thought it would look like a traditional boring place with shards of clay jugs, necklaces made of the teeth of predators and so on… well, you get the idea. Especially since it’s located in a pretty old neighborhood in Riyadh. Surprisingly, it is quite a modern building with an interesting exposition and local flavor.
Opening hours:
Mon-Wed: 9 am — 7 pm
Thu: 9 am — 7 pm (Google says that sometimes till 10 pm, but I doubt).
Fri: 2 pm — 10 pm
Sat-Sun: closed.
Fee: for free.
Note: there is no cafeteria inside, so come full or bring some water and snacks with you 🙂
I came to this museum because of the Van Cleef & Arpels lecture I wrote about in another post. Since there was an hour and a half left before the event, my colleagues and I decided to see the main exhibition. And we didn’t regret it at all!
I was most interested in the section dedicated to the mineralogy of the Kingdom. Have you ever seen a «desert rose»? Well, in this museum you can look at it!
A desert rose is «an intricate rose-like formation of crystal clusters of gypsum or baryte, which include abundant sand grains» (Wikipedia). In simple terms, it is a natural sculpture made of crystals, which under the influence of arid desert conditions formed in the form of a flower. It is very beautiful and at first glance you will think that it is a stone shaped by a master…
The nearby section tells a story of mammoths that lived on the Arabian Peninsula many millions of years ago. There are fragments of cave drawings (right now you can even touch them. Do you think you’d have that opportunity in European museums?). There is also a very detailed chronology of all the civilizations that lived on the peninsula.
I envy modern kids, who have the opportunity to study history by looking at all this, and not just at small pictures in textbooks… In the meantime, parents can admire the design of architectural elements of previous centuries or examine the cannons.
An hour and a half was not enough for us to go around the entire exposition. I think that speaks for itself.
After the event, we discovered that the museum has another exit that leads to a pleasant square with trees and fountains. It’s cool there, even on a hot evening, and that is why the square is filled with locals: adults discussing the latest news over a cup of Arabic coffee, and laughing children running away from scared nannies…
I you walk through the square, you can see a museum of cars of one of the previous kings. It was already closed for entry, so I can tell you about it some other time 🙂
You can also check the list of other interesting places in Riyadh, as well as the list of ongoing events 🙂
My Saudi Arabia 
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