The Two Towers

Riyadh isn't much of a city, at least compared with Dubai. Like Dubai, it's a miracle of unsustainbility that it exists at all. Sporadically the seat of government of the Al-Saud tribe and famous for its palm orchards (Al-Riyadh means "The Gardens"), the city grew from a mere 10,000 in 1950 to 6 million inhabitants today. Oil got more plentiful; water did not.

My Riyadh is my hotel-apartment near Al-Faisaliah tower

one of the two sky-scrapers that demarcate downtown. The other is the Kingdom Tower, which I was not able to take my own photo of:

Technically we can wander about the streets of Riyadh, but there is nothing to do. Movie theaters are outlawed and the malls are crowded with people I'm not allowed to look at. So my work benefits and our weekend plans are becoming more meticulously crafted. Apparently the US Embassy throws the best parties - although being the only party in town probably helps.

A few of us are actually tossing around the idea of starting a blog, on the DCist or VoxPopuli model. Mostly because they are good blogs, but also because our hypothesis is that there must be something happening every day in a city of 6 million people, but due to the closed Saudi society and high turnover of ex-pats, there are no clear information channels to publicize events. Maybe someday when I find the time.