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Mohammed bin Salman Project Restores Mosques in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region

The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques
The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques
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Mohammed bin Salman Project Restores Mosques in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region

The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques
The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques

As part of its second phase, the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Project for Developing Historical Mosques is reconstructing and renovating the mosques in the Eastern Region, adopting methods that aim to safeguard the heritage they represent by restoring them to their original form to the greatest extent possible in adherence to global standards.

The project seeks to grant Jawatha and Umm Zriniq mosques in the Eastern Region a historical and aesthetic identity with unique and distinguished features that respect their aesthetic history.

It will do so through multiple stages of systematic projects relying on studies, research and analysis on how to best restore them into their original form and which materials to use to do so.

Jawatha Mosque is considered among the oldest historical mosques in the Islamic world. Built by Bani Abd Al-Qais after their second visit to Prophet Mohammad in the seventh century of the Hijri calendar, it is considered the first mosque to host Friday prayers after the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.

The area of the mosque, before and after renovation, is around 205,5 square meters and can hold 170 worshippers.

Meanwhile, the Umm Zriniq Mosque in Al-Owemariah neighborhood of Al-Hofuf city was built over 100 years ago next to the Umm Zriniq Cemetery.

The area of the mosque will increase from 30 square meters to 213,96 square meters, and its capacity will rise. It will hold 94 worshippers after it had ceased to receive worshippers.

The Prince Mohammed bin Salman Project to Develop Historical Mosques aims to rehabilitate and restore 130 historical mosques in various regions across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, highlighting their civilizational and cultural dimensions by preserving their original aesthetic.

The second phase of this project includes 30 historical mosques in 13 different regions across the Kingdom- six mosques in the Riyadh region, five mosques in the Makkah region, four mosques in the Madinah region, three mosques in the Asir region and two mosques in each of the Eastern regions, Al-Jouf and Jazan, and one mosque in each of the Northern Borders, Tabuk, Baha, Najran, Hail and Qassim.

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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.