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Preparations Underway for Riyadh International Book Fair

Preparations Underway for Riyadh International Book Fair
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Preparations Underway for Riyadh International Book Fair

Preparations Underway for Riyadh International Book Fair

Saudi Arabia's Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission continues to prepare to hold this year's Riyadh International Book Fair, scheduled to take place from September 26 to October 5 at the King Saud University campus in Riyadh.

The event feature writers, intellectuals, and thought leaders from the Kingdom and abroad, as well as over 2,000 local, Arab, and international publishing houses from 30 countries, which will further solidify the fair’s status as one of the most significant international cultural platforms in the Arab world.

The fair will feature 800 pavilions and over 200 events suitable for all age groups and activities focused on promoting the culture of reading and fostering cultural creativity.

An area dedicated to children will offer literary, cultural, and recreational activities and competitions that aim to nurture creativity in children and youths. Activities will also focus on developing young people’s love for reading, nurturing curiosity, and discovering and honing their talents.

The fair will also contain a special area for self-published Saudi authors, reflecting the commitment of the Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission to fostering a supportive environment for cultural creativity, strengthening the local publishing industry, empowering Saudi writers, and providing them with a platform to present their literary works to a broad audience.

Qatar will be the guest of honor at this year's fair, showcasing its cultural and intellectual heritage through a special pavilion featuring rare manuscripts and publications from its Ministry of Culture.

Commission CEO Dr. Mohammed Alwan underscored the significance of the Riyadh International Book Fair, which, he said, spans five decades and is one of the region's foremost cultural events. Its success, he added, reflects the Saudi leadership's unwavering support for the cultural sector and solidifies the Kingdom's role in shaping the Arab cultural landscape.

The fair provides culture and book enthusiasts with a journey that integrates the latest modern technologies and digital solutions, he stated. It offers them the opportunity to explore thousands of new publications in various fields, and to take part in a diverse and rich cultural program that involves prominent figures in culture, art, and literature from Saudi Arabia, the region and the world.

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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)
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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.”