How Saudi Arabia’s mountains offer an authenticity rarely found elsewhere in the kingdom
Far from Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development projects, the hills of Asir province and its capital Abha offer a place to ‘clear the mind’
From the air, Abha’s mountains emerge as a shock of emerald green rising from a sea of sand.
Terra firma brings other surprises: a bracing wind that has me grabbing for a jacket – a piece of clothing all but ignored in other parts of Saudi Arabia.
Indeed, so much of Abha, the capital of the southwestern province of Asir, seems a world away – and two dozen degrees cooler – from the scorching desert that dominates Western notions of the kingdom.
I am here as a tourist – and Saudi Arabia hopes for many more. The government is spending nearly US$1 trillion to make attractive what, just over a decade ago, was one of the most tourist-averse countries on earth.
If you have read anything about tourism in Saudi Arabia, you have probably seen mention of Vision 2030. The all-out diversification plan to reduce the kingdom’s reliance on oil includes Neom, the sci-fi-esque desert metropolis with plans for an artificial moon and flying cars, and the Red Sea Project, which intends to turn a 92-island archipelago off the country’s pristine Red Sea coast into a network of 50 luxury hotels and about 1,000 residential units.