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Diriyah Season: Entertainment with a Historic Touch

The Diriyah boxing ring that will host the fight between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua on December 7. (SPA)
The Diriyah boxing ring that will host the fight between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua on December 7. (SPA)
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Diriyah Season: Entertainment with a Historic Touch

The Diriyah boxing ring that will host the fight between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua on December 7. (SPA)
The Diriyah boxing ring that will host the fight between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua on December 7. (SPA)

After the Riyadh Season festival, Diriyah Season kicked off to highlight Saudi heritage and history with numerous modern recreational activities.

Diriyah Season has opened the doors of Diriyah Oasis to announce the debut of one of the biggest entertainment events in the region. The event gathers art and entertainment in four different zones, each with its unique shows and games.

With its wide recreational zones, the Diriyah Oasis offers diverse experiences for all visitors. It includes the butterfly oasis, boasting some 3,000 different types of butterflies, along with many musical and artistic shows.

The oasis emphasizes the historical value of the Diriyah Governorate. It reflects the majestic Saudi heritage, highlights the beauty of its unique architecture and provides a glance at the country's rich resources.

This entertainment destination is composed of four main zones: nature, imagination, reflection and excitement and extends over 130,000 square meters.

The nature zone features many activities in green spaces, such as farmers markets, forests and the butterfly oasis, along with some courts dedicated for children games. For adventure lovers, the imagination zone introduces many shows and games, with some children activities at the Steam Lab, an interactive exhibition offering activities and attractive sites. It also comprises illusion rooms, art and craft workshops, a confetti dome and an urban maze.

Near to Diriyah's giant wheel, visitors will be able to sit and relax around ponds in the soothing environment of the reflection zone, which also includes an outdoor ice rink and kart racing on water.

The excitement zone features a drone arena, four unique escape rooms, a laser tag area, a virtual-reality sports world and bumper cars.

At Diriyah Season, you can also enjoy other regions like the ancient Tarif neighborhood, and Al-Bujairi area with its luxury restaurants. Both are separated by Wadi Hanifa, the Formula-E zone, a field that will host the historic Diriyah fight between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua on December 7, and another field for a scheduled tennis tournament.

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Varieties

Palestinian Pottery Sees Revival in War-Ravaged Gaza

Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Palestinian Pottery Sees Revival in War-Ravaged Gaza

Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Traditional clay pottery is seeing a resurgence in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are forced to find solutions for a shortage of plates and other crockery to eat from in the territory ravaged by more than a year of war.

"There is an unprecedented demand for plates as no supplies enter the Gaza Strip," 26-year-old potter Jafar Atallah said in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.

The vast majority of the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Fleeing bombs amid Israel's devastating retaliatory military offensive, which has destroyed large amounts of civilian infrastructure, everyday items like cups and bowls have often been lost, broken or left behind to perish.

With imports made increasingly difficult by Israeli restrictions and the dangers of delivering aid, Gazans have had to find resourceful ways to meet their needs since the war began.

- Bare-bones -

To keep up with demand, Atallah works non-stop, producing around 100 pieces a day, mainly bowls and cups, a stark contrast to the 1,500 units his factory in northern Gaza made before the war.

It is one of the numerous factories in Gaza to have shut down, with many destroyed during air strikes, inaccessible because of the fighting, or unable to operate because of materials and electricity shortages.

Today, Atallah works out of a bare-bones workshop set up under a thin blue plastic sheet.

He carefully shapes the clay into much-needed crockery, then leaves his terracotta creations to dry in the sun -- one of the few things Gaza still has plenty of.

Each object is sold for 10 shekels, the equivalent of $2.70 -- nearly five times what it was worth before the war led to widespread shortages and sent prices soaring.

Gazans have told AFP they are struggling to find all types of basic household goods.

"After 13 months of war, I went to the market to buy plates and cutlery, and all I could find was this clay pot," said Lora al-Turk, a 40-year-old mother living in a makeshift shelter in Nuseirat, a few kilometers (miles) from Deir al-Balah.

"I was forced to buy it to feed my children," she said, noting that the pot's price was now more than double what it was before the war.

- Old ways -

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 44,176 people, most of them civilians, according to data from Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Following each Israeli army evacuation order, which generally precedes fighting and bombing, masses of people take to the roads, often on foot, carrying whatever they can manage.

But with each passing month and increasing waves of displacement, the loads they carry grow smaller.

Many Gazans now live in tents or other makeshift shelters, and some even on bare pavement.

The United Nations has warned about the threat of diseases in the often cramped and unsanitary conditions.

But for Gazans, finding inventive ways to cope with hardship is nothing new.

In this, the worst-ever Gaza war, people are using broken concrete from war-damaged buildings to build makeshift homes. With fuel and even firewood scarce, many rely on donkeys for transport. Century-old camping stoves are reconditioned and used for cooking.

Traditional pottery is another sign of a return to the old ways of living.