Bringing Saudi heritage alive

DAMMAM: Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, launched the Second National Built Heritage Forum here yesterday.
The three-day high-profile event, being held with active support from Eastern Province Gov. Prince Mohammad bin Fahd, is aimed at promoting and preserving the Kingdom’s national heritage.
Outlining his vision, Prince Sultan said: “It is our duty to bring the heritage alive because it helps formulate our national identity.”
He said the ultimate aim is to take history out of the textbooks and actually experience it firsthand with the help of the country's rich heritage and historic sites.
The SCTA chief highlighted the efforts being made by the commission to preserve heritage sites in the Kingdom without damaging their historic nature.
“We do not stress merely on renovating historic sites … Our emphasis is on preserving them as heritage, economic and social projects,” he said.
Prince Sultan visited a number of pavilions that have been set up at various places in the twin cities of Dammam and Alkhobar. The exhibits and artfully posters highlight and showcase the important heritage sites in the Eastern Province.
At the sprawling University of Dammam, Prince Sultan inaugurated an exhibition of projects by students of the university’s 40-year-old College of Architecture and Planning. The prince seemed delighted with the novel projects carried out by the university’s fourth-year architecture and planning students. He complimented Dammam University Rector Abdullah Al-Rubaish for the good work by the students and the university’s faculty.
Prince Sultan took a good look at the projects that were among the winners of the Prince Sultan bin Salman Award for Architectural Heritage. He honored the students and their teachers by presenting them with mementos.
In his address at the university, Prince Sultan said: “We have set for ourselves an important goal, and that is to adopt a collective culture to appreciate urban heritage which works to preserve and develop urban heritage, and even contribute to its investment.”
He, however, admitted that it was not an easy task. “Speaking from personal experience with urban heritage, which began a quarter of a century ago, I have come across stiff resistance by many individuals and institutions, even academic institutions, because of misconceptions of urban heritage and the perception by many that it carries with it a burden and its maintenance is a waste of time, money and effort and simply fruitless,” he said.
According to him, this particular view was cemented during a period in which the country experienced rapid development. “When we started 10 years ago, the task of changing this mindset and building a generation that believed in the cultural value of heritage was considered by many to be a mission impossible,” he said. “But the SCTA took on this daunting challenge and succeeded … We are today reaping the fruits of success and now truly realize that we are on the right track,” said Prince Sultan.
This is the second such forum. The first one was organized in Jeddah last year. The next will be in Madinah. “Through this annual forum, the SCTA, in close cooperation with local municipalities and universities, aims to increase awareness about the importance of our priceless heritage,” said Prince Sultan. “The ultimate idea is to contribute to the development of sustainable tourism.”
The SCTA chief outlined the forum’s many goals. “It will assess the current status of the national urban heritage in the Eastern Province; highlight the economic role of investment in the development of sites and buildings of urban heritage in the Kingdom and identify the obstacles that hinder financing such projects,” he said.
In the afternoon, Prince Sultan addressed a workshop on investment in urban heritage at the Asharqia Chamber. The chamber is SCTA’s key partner and an important supporter of the activities and events that are related to the national heritage development in general and the urban heritage in particular.
The workshop at the chamber was attended by a number of businessmen and businesswomen, in addition to a select group of experts in the field of the urban heritage, economy, investment from public and private sectors.
A number of interesting sessions have been lined up for discussions at the Dammam Sheraton today. To be addressed by international, regional and local urban heritage experts, the forum will focus on the role of municipalities in the preservation of urban heritage, urban heritage in higher education, investment in urban heritage and the role of the society in the urban heritage preservation.