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Tapline Becomes 1st Industrial Heritage Site to Be Registered in Saudi Arabia

Tapline line was installed to transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tapline line was installed to transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Tapline Becomes 1st Industrial Heritage Site to Be Registered in Saudi Arabia

Tapline line was installed to transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tapline line was installed to transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The old crude oil pipeline Tapline became a national industrial heritage site as the first industrial site to be officially registered in Saudi Arabia. Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Saudi Minister of Culture, made the announcement yesterday, extending his thanks to the minister of energy and Saudi Aramco for their quick response after they immediately halted the work on removing Tapline.

King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, ordered the construction of the Tapline pipeline in 1947 so that oil could be transported from eastern Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese Mediterranean coast. The cities of Arar and Tarif in the northern border region did not merely resemble Riyadh and Jeddah only, but rather came to look like miniature versions of American cities, bearing particular resemblance to Texas.

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Munif, in his book Oil ... The boom ... Wealth, recounts the Tapline’s history and its industrial and social significance in northern Saudi Arabia, as well as how it was shaped by a group of American engineers and technicians and the tribes and nomads of the northern border region. He gives a comprehensive explanation of its impactions on Saudi Arabia and the region’s future. It was momentous indeed; as Majid Al-Mutlaq, the president of the northern border region literary club, explained in a previous interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, the pipeline became 1664 kilometers long, 1300 of it inside Saudi territory. Several pumping stations measured distances were required to prevent the flow from weakening, so the company has established seven stations, starting from Qaisumah in the east and ending with Tarif in the west.

Specialized engineers and support workers were stationed at each of them to ensure the pipelines’ protection and smooth functioning.

The ministry of culture initiated the Industrial Heritage competition in July 2019, the first of its kind in the history of Saudi Arabia. It sheds light on the sites of the Saudi industrial renaissance and raises awareness about this type of heritage, which encompasses humanity’s post-industrial revolution social and engineering achievements.

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Syrians Return to Homes Devastated by War

"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP
"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP
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Syrians Return to Homes Devastated by War

"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP
"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP

When Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi returned to his house near Damascus after Bashar al-Assad's ouster, he saw unfathomable destruction.

Now, cushions and plants brighten the wreckage that he is determined to call home again.

"As soon as we found out that... the regime was gone and that people were coming back... we sorted our things" and packed the car, said Kafozi, 74, standing in the wreckage of his home in a former opposition bastion near the capital.

"I had to come home and stay by any means," he told AFP. "We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this."

Plastic sheeting covers windows in what remains of the home where he and his family are living with no electricity, running water or even a proper bathroom, in the town of Hammuriyeh.

Syria's war began in 2011 when Assad unleashed a crackdown on democracy protests, prompting soldiers to defect from the army and civilians to take up weapons.

When Eastern Ghouta, where Hammuriyeh is located, fell out of Assad's control, the government imposed a siege and launched a ferocious air and ground assault.

Assad's forces were accused of conducting chemical attacks on opposition areas of Eastern Ghouta.

In 2018, tens of thousands of fighters and civilians were bussed to opposition-held northwest Syria under evacuation deals brokered by Assad backer Russia.

Among those who left the area at the time were Kafozi and his family.

His granddaughter Baraa, now eight and carrying a bright pink school bag, "was an infant in our arms" when they left, he said.

Fast-forward to December 2024, Assad was ousted in an offensive spearheaded by opposition militants, allowing displaced Syrians to return to their homes.

Kafozi said that when Baraa first saw the damage, "she just stared and said, 'what's this destroyed house of ours? Why did we come? Let's go back.'"

"I told her, this is our home, we have to come back to it," he said.

- No regrets -

Until their return to Hammuriyeh, his family sought refuge in the northwest and survived a 2023 earthquake that hit Syria and neighbouring Türkiye.

Despite the damage to his home, Kafozi said: "I don't regret coming back."

Outside, children played in the dusty street, while a truck delivered gas bottles and people passed on bicycles.

Next door, Kafozi's nephew Ahmed, 40, has also returned with his wife and four children, but they are staying with relatives because of the damage to their home.

From the shell of a bedroom, the day worker looked out at a bleak landscape of buildings crumpled and torn by bombing.

"Our hope is that there will be reconstruction in the country," he said.

"I don't think an individual effort can bear this, it's too big, the damage in the country is great."

Syria's 13-year-war has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more and ravaged the country's infrastructure and industry.

Local official Baibars Zein, 46, said bus transport had been arranged for people displaced from Hammuriyeh.

"We've taken around 106 families -- the total number of families that want to come back is around 2,000," he said near a mosque with a damaged minaret.

- 'Oppression is gone' -

Among those who returned was Zein's brother Saria, who left his wife and five children in northwest Syria to try to make their flat inhabitable before they return.

"This damage is from the battle that happened and regime bombardment -- they bombed us with barrels and missiles," said Saria, 47, pointing to cracked walls.

Rights groups documented the extensive use during the war by Assad's army of so-called barrel bombs, an improvised explosive dropped from planes.

To Saria, the devastation was a grim reminder of a 2015 strike that killed his seven-year-old daughter.

His wife narrowly missed being hit by shrapnel that took a chunk out of the wall, he said.

His children "are really excited, they call me and say 'Dad, we want to come back,'" he said.

"We are very very optimistic -- the oppression is gone," he said. "That's the most important thing."