A Walk Down A Museum's Memory Lane

They say that museums are places where time is transformed into space... and I AGREE! 

The National Museum of Saudi Arabia

I revisited the National Museum of Saudi Arabia weeks ago... four years after Eyecandy and I first went there. I was curious to see the changes in the museum and I was quite surprised... because nothing has changed! It's still the same. No new features, no new effects, no new nothing. Unless I missed them but when it's just me and two of my friends in the museum (it's literally ours for the night), it's hard to miss anything that's out of the ordinary.

The lobby, bow!

The two-story National Museum of Saudi Arabia is a huuuge (like 17,000 sqm) part of the King Abdulaziz Historical Centre. One of the reasons I like it, despite of its somewhat not awe-inducing components, is because it's wide and so spacious! It has 8 major halls which are designed slightly different from one another. (Lonely Panet published in their site that the museum has eight floors! Whew! It has 8 halls! Not floors, haha!) If you can still remember, I didn't explain the halls on our first two entries. Allow me to do so now. ;)

The King Abdulaziz Historical Centre

Here are the highlights of my walk down memory lane...

The first thing to greet you is still this piece of a meteorite found in the Empty Quarter.

WELCOME!

This is our boss' favorite piece because he's been to the area of the Empty Quarter where this meteor landed (the Wabar Meteorite Impact Site) and he said that it turned sand into glass (black melted slag)! Wow! We should totally visit that area one day. This display is also the welcoming committee of the Man and Universe hall.

The Man and Universe Hall is all about the geological ages where the prehistoric man and the way of life during the very early days are featured. A favorite display is this model of a Mastodon, an extinct specie that is related to today's elephants.

The Mastodon

The side back view?!

They roamed the Arabian Peninsula 12-17 million years ago. Okay, seriously, this is probably the most photographed display in the museum. Some visitors even climb the rock and pose underneath it. Walang pinapalampas talaga basta camwhoring! ;)

My favorite would have to be this desert rose. A crystal cluster of gypsum or baryte which forms a rosette tinged with a pale pink color that's so lovely to look at.

Amazing art of nature

I spent minutes staring at this sand rose because four years after, it's unchanged.

Yep, they're waving at yah!

This rock, found in Najran with handprints carved into it, bids you farewell from the Man and Universe Hall and welcomes you into the next hall...

Please follow the yellow dots on the floor. This way please!

The Arab Kingdoms Hall is where the history of the Arab world spanning from the fourth millenium BC to the fourth century AD comes into light. It highlights the ancient civilizations in the Arabian peninsula.

A dwelling place

The Tayma Wall built with stones

How they wrote those days.

These slabs of rocks, which date back to the fourth millennium BC, were found at the Khobba site in the Tabuk region. The ancient scripts are also featured in this hall and being a fan of anything "handwriting", I took time in examining the slabs of rock where these scripts were displayed. Thank goodness the ink, pen, and paper were discovered and invented. Imagine reading a book during those times! Whew!

The Pre-Islamic (Jahiliyya) Era Hall shows the trade route before the advent of Islam.

Go on, have your photo here!

Another favorite photo op area is this archway. I hope they just painted a scenery, or something (any thing!), on the wall behind it. Unless there's a significant reason why it's just painted solid dark blue.

Located in the second floor (the first hall to greet you upstairs), the Prophet's Mission Hall is the most colorful. It depicts the lineage, family, marriage, and major events in the life of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). There's the showcase of the artistically painted holy Quran and the road map of the prophet's journey to Madinah.

Read the walls

The story telling of the prophet's journey

Part of the prophet's hall

The Islam and Arabian Peninsula Hall has six sections that highlights the era of Islam. It begins with the Umayyad Caliphate to the Abbasid period to the Ottoman.

Ruins

Scale this?

You can't leave the museum without having a picture on this wall. Just because.

What lies behind the facade?

The old Riyadh appears in the Saudi First and Second State Hall. As you know, the old town of Riyadh still stands today... known as Diriyyah. The exhibit hall has a street from a the mud house neighborhood and a miniature version underneath a glass floor that people can walk in.

A street in Diriyyah

There's also a diorama. Riyadh has truly progressed.

You won't see the Kingdom Tower there just yet.

The most interesting hall would have to the Unification of the Kingdom Hall which has a mini theater. Since my friends and I were the only ones in the museum that night (or okay, in that section because who knows? Maybe other followed after we went in...), we thought they wouldn't be playing the movie but the custodian said we can watch it and so we did. It was a nice experience seeing an educational and entertaining "movie" in Riyadh, complete with canons hissing smoke on the side. Hehe.

The theater and the movie

You'll also see the displays of old houses in this section.

Remember this Vigan-esque houses?

Up to the discovery of oil...

The truck's still here!

The last hall, the Hajj and the Two Holy Mosques Hall, is the most beautiful. As you go down the stairs, huge portraits hanging in the ceiling welcomes visitors. Below it is a map that shows the aerial view of Makkah. Everything related to the holy pilgrimage of Muslims are on display like a sample of the Kaaba curtain and the Kaaba door.

The last hall

You shouldn't miss the miniature version of the Kaaba and the Grand Mosque (Masjid-al-Haram). The details are gorgeous!

Part of the grand mosque in Makkah

And also the miniature version of the Al Masjid-an-Nabawi, often called the Prophet's Mosque, in Madinah. I like the overall design of this mosque better. For non-Muslims like us, this is probably the closest thing we'd ever come to seeing the two holiest sites in Islam up close. It's an awesome feeling... to be able to connect to what we usually view as something so different from us. It usually turns out the other way isn't it? We're so alike in so many ways. :)

More displays

The National Museum of Saudi Arabia is simple as compared to the other museums in other countries but it speaks loudly about Saudi Arabia and its history as the strongest, biggest Kingdom in the Arab peninsula. Museums are generally boring but not for me, a history nut. So if you're like me and just want to do something new, discover something new... then visit the National Museum of Saudi Arabia. A stone's throw away is a modern exhibition hall featuring a car collection and a Memorial Hall. A few steps further is the Al Watan Park and the Riyadh Water Tower.

The hallway leading to the entrance

It's best to visit at night time. Ticket price is SR 10 per adult; children and students are free. Check the schedule here. To those who can't visit for various reasons (like maybe you live far far away from Riyadh), then check out this virtual tour.

A night in the museum

We received requests for The Pink Tarha to create a tour of the museum (and other interesting sites) for ladies in Riyadh. It's quite funny because we're not even locals to do a kind of trip that shows Saudi Arabia's history and discusses their culture but we're extremely flattered that people trust us to be able to share this information to them. What do you think? Should we or shouldn't we? ;)

Well, who knows? Maybe a plan of a "Riyadh tour" is in the works. You know us Pink Tarha ladies... we're full of surprises! ;) ~ Sundrenched


National Museum of Saudi Arabia
King Abdulaziz Historical Centre
Murabba, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
T: +966-11-4029500

Yellow marks the spot.

A Trip To Riyadh's Cultural Sweet Spot (Part II)

I spent countless nights thinking of ways to write an entry about a museum which will not bore the heck out of you. After kong tumambling sa kakaisip (tingnan n'yo naman, anong petsa na bago pa namin nai-post ni Eyecandy ito), I resigned to the fact that come to think of it, there’s nothing exciting in a museum, unless you yourself will make it interesting!

Having put off this post for sooo long, I decided to just admit that this entry will probably bore you, as if you need another reason to be bored in the Kingdom. But wait (there's more)! Even if you think this is boring, I'll make sure you'll never regret taking this museum walk through with the crazy Pink Tarha Girls. This won't suck as much, I promise.

I'll give you a brief walk through by presenting the WHAT YOU SHOULDN'T MISS IN THE MUSEUM in photos and a little daldal on the side. I'm not gonna enumerate the 8 exhibition halls because you can read them here. I am straying away from hardcore facts and info so you can read them in the museum when you visit.

Now, let's go. Walk slowly, this will be loooong.

It's not your ordinary rock though it looks like it. This 2.75-ton meteorite found in the Empty Quarter (Rub' Al Khali) welcomes you at the entrance of the Riyadh National Museum. If only it could alien talk and greet with "Welcome, earthlings!" (Oh right, this is a museum, not a planetarium!)

Dizzy much? This globe is an optical illusion. Not the kind that will disappear but the kind that you're not seeing what you're actually seeing. Gulo ko eh noh? I mean this huge sphere that you're seeing is not actually a sphere. It's a series of monitors and mirrors that creates the illusion. It talks about the universe. (Eyecandy's brother on photo. Guest artist! :P)

The Pink Tarha Girls are not the only roses you'll find here in the desert. Meron din talagang tinatawag na desert rose. It's not a flower but layers of minerals that crystallized to form this beautiful pinkish formation. There are also many kinds of rocks and minerals on display (don't forget to read labels from right to left okay?).

Dinosaur, mammoth, or elephant? Eyecandy, why did we not take notes?! This skeleton is huge but people can actually go climb the rock and pose underneath this thing. We can even touch it and debone it.

Before we go further, if you see these telephones, wag n'yong akalaing pwede kayong mag-long distance call dyan. Hindi po iyan call cabin. These telephones are audio presentations of the exhibit where it's located. You can listen to what each display is all about.

Where is my match?! These handprints are etched in stone. The fingers of Saudi Arabia's ancestors are waaay longer than mine. (Eyecandy on photo.)

The Arabian civilization's writing system started with cuneiform and hieroglyphics (thanks to Mesopotamia and Egypt) too. Can you imagine if we still write with picks and rock tablets today? Writing this entry will not only take me weeks, it'll take me years!

Slides of early nomadic tribes will lit up on a screen showing the tribe's early settlement. From here, we got a picture of how the Arabs took hold of the peninsula.

Can you guess what this rock wheel did in the early times? At first we thought it was a water pump yah think?!, then an actual wheel that holds chariots stone age hello?!, and then we read the label brilliant idea! which says it's actually used by farmers as a rice grain crusher. It's used to separate the grain from the skin. A camel pushes the wooden handle and does a merry-go-round. The wheel then crushes the grains placed underneath. Kawawang camel.

There's a surprise waiting for you in one of the tunnel-like structure just before you go up the second floor. Syempre kung sasabihin ko, hindi na surprise yun. :P

The family tree of Muhammad (PBUH) welcomes you to the Islam Centre of the museum. The founder of Islam was born in 570 CE in Mecca belonging to the Banu Hashim tribe.

We traced the life of Muhammad (PBUH) and the conception and spread of Islam through a series of lighted multi-colored glass panels. You can read the text or listen to the audio reading the text for you.

What's amazing with this holy quran is that it's vintage... and hand-written! Imagine the scribes of days painstakingly writing in papyrus with feathers dipped in ink made with plant sap and... okay, enough imagining. It's written in course, aged paper with a calligraphy pen. The colored pages are vibrant. Some qurans on display are gold-plated. Huwaw! (Come to think of it, we didn't really paid attention if there were sensors on the displays but we're guessing there weren't any. Not that we're encouraging you to steal anything!)

If I can take this impressive, well-crafted brass door home in Pinas, I will. Several probems though: 1. the door is too heavy to take home, mamumulubi ako sa shipping, 2. wala akong mansyon, hindi bagay sa bahay namin and 3. how do you knock on this thing without getting your knuckle sore?!

If there's one major reason to go to the museum, this is it... a THEATER! Wheee, moviehouse! Okay, wag masyadong ma-excite! Even if it looks and feels like Greenbelt's cinema, it shows only one movie and it's about the unification of Saudi Arabia under King Saud. Boring? Surprisingly not. You'll be happy to know that there's real acting here. Makes us wonder where and when it was filmed... and how?! Kulang na lang popcorn!

Let's take a break! When Eyecandy saw her brother and I resting and posing under this tree, she thought this is a significant tree of life. Actually, apart from being a part of the bedouin tent display, this tree just served as a respite from the long walk we'd had from the entrance of the museum. Nakakaloko pala ang museum na ito. At first glance it looks small (yakang yaka!) because we only get to see little sections on each bend. By the time we reached this tree on the second floor, my feet were already killing me! (So wear comfortable shoes!).

You'll be surprised to see these Arabic houses. They're only the facade but just looking at how high these houses are, parang wala kami sa Saudi Arabia. Intricate details, wooden windows and door, vintage feel... they remind me so much of the houses in Calle Crisologo.

Saudi Arabia owes its wealth to the discovery of oil in their desert. This oil rig stands prominently in one corner along with this fiery red Power Wagon used in the oil mines.

Break muna ulit! This staircase leading to the first floor reminds me and Eyecandy so much of the MRT station. Wala lang.

How cool are these dramatic translucent panels? Super. These grayscale photographs of Arab ancestors hang above a miniature model of Saudi Arabia's geographic landscape.

For Christians, we do not get to see what's inside Mecca and Madinah because we're prohibited to enter Islam's holiest cities. The museum provides us glimpses through scale models of the holy mosques. They also have the Ka'aba door curtain prominently displayed.

Murals, which can be found all over the place, look so real! Perfect for kodakan moments. Wala kaming pinalampas na mural. Mapa-disyerto, kabayo, rocky mountains... lahat yan kinarir naming picturan. Performance level ang poses!

Props depicting houses, pillars, temples, caves, and streets look so real too. I was ready to enter gates, doors, and arches but I will eventually bump into walls. Hihi. I can feel myself walking in Di'riyah's old village streets, passing through the clay arches, living in a bedouin's tent on a desert oasis, farming dates... ah, the desert life!

There's an art gallery, just before the souvenir shop, waiting to awe you.

Some of our fave paintings.

How I wish I can prolong this walk through. But alas, kalas!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the museum. We took a lot of pictures alright but more than the photos, we took in a lot of knowledge about Saudi Arabia's colorful history. From the point of view of outsiders like us, our initial thoughts on the Kingdom's history and culture is bleak - as dreary and cold as the desert. Who'd have thought theirs is an intricate, interesting tapestry of historic and cultural wealth that shaped their nation into what it is today?

As Filipinos, we are proud of our history , culture, and values. I'm sure the Saudis are too. It's probably true that Saudi's ideals and beliefs did not change as much but we should all remember that maybe history is like that... "from age to age, nothing changes but everything is completely different."

Did I bore you? Okay, unread! :P

PS. Thank you Eyecandy for the photos. Thanks for making me your mowdel for the day (ay ako yata ang nagpumilit?! Hehe.)