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Diriyah Company Showcases Saudi Heritage in Beijing

Diriyah Company Showcases Saudi Heritage in Beijing
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Diriyah Company Showcases Saudi Heritage in Beijing

Diriyah Company Showcases Saudi Heritage in Beijing

Diriyah Company is presenting Saudi heritage and culture to a global audience at its Visit Saudi pavilion, part of the Saudi Travel Festival held in Tian-Tan Park in Beijing, China.

The festival is part of a worldwide promotional campaign and was inaugurated by Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb on October 17.

In a statement on Saturday, Diriyah Company said the Diriyah pavilion provides visitors with unique interactive experiences, and showcases Saudi hospitality by offering the traditional Saudi coffee and dates.

It also invites visitors to don the Bisht Al-Barqa, one of the most prominent traditional men's costumes in Diriyah and to take a souvenir photograph with a backdrop of Diriyah.

Visitors are able to participate in artistic activities, utilizing clay and exploring the art of Arabic calligraphy against a backdrop that embodies Saudi heritage, and music played on the oud.

The Saudi Travel Festival, which kicked off on October 18 and continues until October 26, aims to increase awareness about Saudi Arabia's tourist and historical destinations, and rich culture. The event will highlight the Kingdom’s cultural diversity and rich history.

The exhibition features engaging activities, including travel packages that allow visitors to explore the Kingdom's most significant historical and tourist attractions, including Diriyah, as well as immerse themselves in enriching experiences in the Kingdom.

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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.”