Click on the image, then click on the image at flickr to appreciate some of the details

I've been meaning to take a shot like this for a while. The Riyadh camel souk is probably one of the largest, if not the largest of its kind in the world and covers an area of many square kilometers. Here you are looking across it at one of its narrower parts, on the side towards the city.

At one time it was way outside the perimeter of the city housing and the only things to pass this way were those looking after the well being of the animals and the Dammam highway. Slowly though, this is changing. The poles you see on the horizon are the first stages of housing going into the area. First come the roads, then the lighting poles and electricity, following soon behind will comes the houses.

Already, there are signs that the souk is being pushed further from where it currently sits and it is extending out towards the compound I live on which is around 7-8Km distant from this point. That sounds a reasonable distance, but with the wind in the right direction, its presence becomes all too apparent.

Wandering round and into the place is an experience that's worth the while of any visitor. There are so many things to learn about how other people live, their way of life wholly alien to any Westerner. Despite the lowly status of the people working their and their relative poverty, they are an endlessly hospitable bunch, curious to know where you're from, proud as punch to show off their best animals and be photographed with them, and all this done across a rather awkward language barrier in pidgeon English and Arabic.

The only real downside is that you come home smelling like you've been rolling around in camel poo. Small price...

Addendum: There are definitely echoes here of what's happening with the fishermen in Bahrain that I commented on the other day (see here at flickr). Here though it seems to be happening rather more slowly and the next bit of desert along the road is pretty much like the bit they're on now. They are also endlessly adaptable - you only have to look at what they construct a life out of to see that. Whilst most of the people working here are not native Saudi's, most are Yemeni I believe, the owners of the animals most definitely are. Most city dwelling Saudis will take the first available opportunity to get back to their roots and the ownership of camel stock is very much prized - they're just not going to have the time to look after it themselves. So this way of life isn't being lost I don't think, it's just moving a bit.

As you drive around Riyadh these days, it's hard not to notice that something big is going on - big vertically, big horizontally and big volumetrically. It's everywhere seemingly. Wherever a spare corner of land is to be had (there are plenty), you'll find a gantry crane or two, sometimes a dozen, sometimes hundreds festooning the skyline for miles. Off the back of the oil price of recent years, the Saudi's have had some serious wonga to hand and they have gone on an enormous spending spree, blowing vast sums on poured concrete in all directions.

In the main though, this hasn't gone on the frivolous and fanciful - not these guys - it's going on some significant infrastructure. The main roads hereabouts are being dug up, underpasses fitted neatly below the existing, traffic diverted down streets clearly never intended for it. At rush hour (most of the day), chaos ensues and minor collisions are common place, major ones a regular event.

The roads are in a way, just small beer. The big stuff at the moment comes in the buildings that are climbing skywards at an alarming rate. If you don't pass through an area for a couple of months, the chances are that on your return, you'll not recognise it. Here though, we're not talking individual buildings but entire complexes. All of the existing universities are expanding and there's an entirely new one going up next to the airport. For scale, the latter quite takes the biscuit. This is the blurb I found on 'The Princess Nora Bint AbdulRahman University for Women'

The project calls for construction of a new university for women. The university is expected to cover 8 millions square metres and located on King Khalid International Airport Road at north of Riyadh. The total built up area is around 3 millions square metres. The university will include administration buildings, 13 faculties, a 700-bed student hospital, laboratories, research centres, and residential area that include accommodation for students and staff. The capacity of university is around 26,000 students.

Source: Construction Week Online

Now I've no idea of the experience of most, but that's a quite staggering project. By all accounts, this will be the largest women's university in the world. Amongst the expats, it's already known as the virgin mega-store! This link to Google Maps gives some idea of the scale of the development, which is around 3 miles long and over 2 wide. That image is now 6 months old and I can assure you there's rather more on the ground than when that was taken.

Alongside this though, the Imam University is growing, as is the King Saud University. There is also the King Abdullah Financial District going up not far away - the aim here being to set up the largest financial centre in the Middle East and I've seen one comment to suggest that they've taken their inspiration from Canary Wharf.

You'd think looking at all this, that this was quite a widespread activity, but it's not. Everything I've mentioned can be seen from the route AM and I travel to go to the supermarket. Now admittedly, our chosen supermarket is a half hour drive into town, but they are all on a 10 mile stretch on the North-West of the city. I have no idea what's going on anywhere else in the city, but a drive to pick up the groceries couldn't possibly be any more impressive anywhere else in the world... or could it?

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