The rose city of Arabia — 1,800 metres up in the Hejaz highlands where pomegranates grow and the air stays cool
Ta'if is Saudi Arabia's summer escape, perched at 1,800 metres in the Al Hejaz mountains above Jeddah — the altitude keeps temperatures a reliable 10°C cooler than the coastal plain and turns the surrounding wadis into orchards of pomegranates, grapes, and figs. The city is most famous for its roses: the Ta'if rose (Ward Taif) is the source of the most prized rose water and rose oil in the Arab world, harvested each spring in a brief season when the hillsides around Al Hada and Al Shafa fill with pink damask roses. Local honey — the dark, intense mountain honey from the Asir region bees that…
Ta'if has been a significant Hejazi city since pre-Islamic times — it was home to the Banu Thaqif tribe and a rival centre of power to Mecca, which lies only 75km northwest at sea level. The city resisted the early Islamic conquest: the Prophet Muhammad's siege of Ta'if in 630 CE ultimately failed, and the town submitted voluntarily eight months later. Ottoman rule brought substantial construction; the 18th-century Shubra Palace (now a regional museum) was built by the Ottoman Wali of Hejaz and expanded in the early 20th century by Sharif Hussein. Ta'if served briefly as the Saudi royal famil…