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‘Souq Al-Zal’… A Saudi Shopping Destination with Historic Twist

Saudi Arabian city view with the Kingdom Tower, background, and 'Al-Faislia Tower' in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Saudi Arabian city view with the Kingdom Tower, background, and 'Al-Faislia Tower' in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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‘Souq Al-Zal’… A Saudi Shopping Destination with Historic Twist

Saudi Arabian city view with the Kingdom Tower, background, and 'Al-Faislia Tower' in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Saudi Arabian city view with the Kingdom Tower, background, and 'Al-Faislia Tower' in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Shoppers can travel back in time in Souq Al Zal’s corridors featuring details that tell endless tales inspired by a rich history and generations of merchants who worked there over the past 120 years. The Souq is located in the Saudi capital, near the ruling palace.

Established in 1319 AH (1901 AD), Souq Al Zal in Riyadh draws a real image of the Saudi heritage. It’s surrounded by the Masmak Fort, Al Thumairi Street, and the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque.

This Souq is like no other in the Saudi capital; it has become the largest complex of shops selling menswear, popular accessories, carpets, antiquities, shoes, incense, and all kinds of oriental perfumes. It also features a separate auction space dedicated for old goods sales.

The Souq sees a higher turnout during Ramadan, as people visit it looking for decorations inspired by the holy month and Eid al-Fitr, knowing they can find all what they want including garments, accessories, perfumes, oud, and incense.

Although it looks so simple and modest, the Souq boasts unique and historic buildings that have maintained their original design. There, shoppers enjoy a special experience that takes them back to the past to learn more about their ancestors.

The Souq gathers people from all social classes coming to shop goods that they might not find elsewhere.

Abu Ahmed, an incense merchant in Souq Al Zal, says the turnout in Ramadan has remarkably increased, as many shoppers come looking for decorations for Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.

Visitor Abdullah al-Otaybi says he has come to this Souq since he was a child, noting it’s his favorite place to return to the past and explore the details of the old Saudi lifestyle, and to buy his needs, especially before Eid al-Fitr.

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Varieties

Jane Austen Fans Celebrate the Author’s 250th Birthday in Britain and Beyond

One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
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Jane Austen Fans Celebrate the Author’s 250th Birthday in Britain and Beyond

One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)

Fans of Jane Austen celebrated the acclaimed author's 250th birthday on Tuesday with a church service in her home village, festive visits to her house — and a virtual party for those paying tribute from afar.

Thousands of enthusiasts around the world have already taken part in a yearlong celebration of one of English literature’s greats, who penned “Pride and Prejudice," “Sense and Sensibility” and other beloved novels.

On Tuesday — to mark 250 years since she was born on Dec. 16, 1775 — Jane Austen’s House, in the southern English village of Chawton, hosted talks, tours and performances for dozens of visitors, with celebrations concluding with an online party for fans from all over the world.

“Regency dress strongly encouraged,” organizers said, adding that more than 500 people had signed up for the Zoom party.

The cottage, now a museum with Austen artifacts, was where the author lived for the last years of her life and where she wrote all six of her novels.

A church service featuring music and readings is held in Steventon, the rural village where she was born.

Fans, who call themselves “Janeites," have marked the anniversary year with Regency balls and festivals staged in the UK, US and beyond.

At the weekend, the city of Bath, where Austen lived for five years, hosted the Yuletide Jane Austen Birthday Ball, the finale of many grand costumed events held there this year.

Varieties

Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints Found on Alpine Cliffs Near Winter Olympics Site

The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
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Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints Found on Alpine Cliffs Near Winter Olympics Site

The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)

Italian paleontologists have uncovered thousands of dinosaur footprints on a near-vertical rock face more than 2,000 meters above sea level in the Stelvio National Park, a discovery they say is among the world's richest sites for the Triassic period.

The tracks, some up to 40 cm wide and showing claw marks, stretch for about five kilometers in the high-altitude glacial Valle di Fraele near Bormio, one of the venues for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the northern region of Lombardy.

"This is one of the largest and oldest footprint sites in Italy, and among the most spectacular I've seen in 35 years," said Cristiano Dal Sasso, paleontologist at Milan's Natural History Museum in a press conference on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Lombardy Region.

Experts believe the prints were left by herds of long-necked herbivores, likely plateosaurs, more than 200 million years ago when the area was a warm lagoon, ideal for dinosaurs to roam along beaches, leaving tracks in the mud near the water.

"The footprints were impressed when the sediments were still soft, on the wide tidal flats that surrounded the Tethys Ocean," said Fabio Massimo Petti, ichnologist at MUSE museum of Trento, attending the same conference.

"The muds, now turned to rock, have allowed the preservation of remarkable anatomical details of the feet, such as impressions of the toes and even the claws," Petti added.

As the African plate gradually moved north, closing and drying up the Tethys Ocean, sedimentary rocks that formed the seabed were folded, creating the Alps.

The fossilized dinosaur footprints shifted from a horizontal position to the vertical one on a mountain slope spotted by a wildlife photographer in September while chasing deer and bearded vultures, experts said.

"The natural sciences deliver to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games an unexpected and precious gift from remote eras," Giovanni Malagò, President of the Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee told journalists.

The area cannot be reached by trails, so drones and remote sensing technologies will have to be used to study it.

Varieties

Another Home in British Village Torn Down Due to Seaside Erosion

The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
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Another Home in British Village Torn Down Due to Seaside Erosion

The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 

Demolition work has begun on a second clifftop home in a picturesque seaside spot, just weeks after another property was knocked down in the village.

Bulldozers have started tearing down The Chantry, in Thorpeness on the Suffolk coast because of its proximity to the crumbling cliff edge, according to ITV News.

The four-bedroom home on North End Avenue was put up for auction in September, selling for £200,000, according to the agents' website.

But East Suffolk Council said demolition had to begin after “critical safety levels” were reached.

At the end of October, neighbor Jean Flick, 88, saw her clifftop home in Thorpeness demolished after what the council described as “significant erosion.”

Evelyn Rumsby, who has lived in the village since 1977, described the latest demolition as “heartbreaking.”

“I don’t think unless you live here, you can’t experience anything like it... the noise of these lovely homes going,” she said, holding back tears.

“The erosion has been extreme over the last months, really extreme, and our only hope now is the shingle might come back if the winds change and we don’t have the intensity of these high winds that we’ve had over the last few months.”

“I do have fears,” she said. “We have to acknowledge that if it [erosion] moved in and this road went, there would be no access to our home site. It’s the access to the properties that is a big consideration.”

A spokesperson for East Suffolk Council said: “We have been working closely with affected property owners following significant recent erosion and sadly, critical safety levels have now been reached for another property on North End Avenue.”

He said demolition is in progress and we will continue to support the owners and their contractors to ensure the building can be taken down safely.

“This is a distressing situation, and we would request that people respect the owner’s privacy at this difficult time,” the spokesperson said.

“It is impossible to accurately predict when further losses may occur as erosion is not linear. Therefore, we are regularly monitoring the area and engaging with property owners on an ongoing basis.”