عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Culture

Saudi Museums Commission Signs MoU with the AEON Collective

The agreement aims to promote sustainability in museums through the implementation of sustainable operational strategies. (SPA)
The agreement aims to promote sustainability in museums through the implementation of sustainable operational strategies. (SPA)
TT
TT

Saudi Museums Commission Signs MoU with the AEON Collective

The agreement aims to promote sustainability in museums through the implementation of sustainable operational strategies. (SPA)
The agreement aims to promote sustainability in museums through the implementation of sustainable operational strategies. (SPA)

Saudi Arabia’s Museums Commission signed on Sunday a memorandum of understanding with the endowment fund AEON Collective at the National Museum in Riyadh.

The agreement aims to promote sustainability in museums through the implementation of sustainable operational strategies. It also addresses local environmental issues, strengthening the connection between museums and their surrounding communities.

Signed by Museums Commission Acting CEO Ibrahim Al-Sanousi and Princess Noura bint Turki Al Saud and Princess Mashael bint Saud bin Fawaz Al Shalan, the founding partners and endowment administrators of the AEON Collective, the memorandum outlines cooperation in areas of mutual interest to both parties.

The memorandum emphasizes promoting sustainable practices within museums, focusing on optimizing the use of eco-friendly resources and improving energy efficiency. It also seeks to raise awareness of environmental issues and contribute to environmental protection through educational and outreach initiatives.

The signatories of the memorandum aim to showcase the authentic Saudi identity, build knowledge through a culturally informed approach, and strengthen capabilities in the field of sustainable development.

Most Viewed

 
 
Culture

Thousands Greet the Winter Solstice at the Ancient Stonehenge Monument

A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
TT
TT

Thousands Greet the Winter Solstice at the Ancient Stonehenge Monument

A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and people simply yearning for the promise of spring marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument on Saturday.

Revelers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 a.m. (0809 GMT) over the giant standing stones on the winter solstice — the shortest day and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. No one could see the sun through the low winter cloud, but that did not deter a flurry of drumming, chanting and singing as dawn broke.

There will be less than eight hours of daylight in England on Saturday — but after that, the days get longer until the summer solstice in June.

The solstices are the only occasions when visitors can go right up to the stones at Stonehenge, and thousands are willing to rise before dawn to soak up the atmosphere.

The stone circle, whose giant pillars each took 1,000 people to move, was erected starting about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshiping Neolithic culture, according to The AP. Its full purpose is still debated: Was it a temple, a solar calculator, a cemetery, or some combination of all three?

In a paper published in the journal Archaeology International, researchers from University College London and Aberystwyth University said the site on Salisbury Plain, about 128 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of London, may have had political as well as spiritual significance.

That follows from the recent discovery that one of Stonehenge’s stones — the unique stone lying flat at the center of the monument, dubbed the “altar stone” — originated in Scotland, hundreds of miles north of the site. Some of the other stones were brought from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, nearly 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the west,

Lead author Mike Parker Pearson from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology said the geographical diversity suggests Stonehenge may have served as a “monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.”