Najdi Arabia's best-preserved mud-brick heritage town — red-painted towers and a restored old quarter 180km from Riyadh
Shaqra is one of the most atmospheric heritage towns in central Saudi Arabia, a mid-sized city in Al Qassim's southern reaches whose old quarter — a dense labyrinth of mud-brick residential towers painted in the deep ochre-red characteristic of Najdi architecture — was largely preserved by a combination of local pride and distance from Riyadh's sprawl. The recently restored Shaqra Heritage Village is the centrepiece: original mud homes, communal mosques, a functioning falaj, and the remains of the city's defensive wall. The towers that line the old city's lanes are the real attraction — some…
Shaqra's founding is traditionally dated to the 17th century, when it was established as a permanent settlement by the Bani Tamim tribe on a seasonal grazing route between Riyadh and Al Qassim. The town's location on the major north-south caravan route between the Hejaz and Kuwait gave it commercial importance throughout the 18th and 19th centuries — the mud-brick merchants' houses with their storage rooms at ground level and residential upper floors reflect this trading heritage. Shaqra was incorporated into the Saudi state early in the 20th century without significant resistance. The old to…