Saudi Memory Map

Places tell history

A knowledge platform connecting place, history, events, and cultural memory across the Arabian Peninsula.

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Saudi Memory Map

Places tell history

A knowledge platform connecting place, history, events, and cultural memory across the Arabian Peninsula.

Explore

Home
Map
Historical sites
Routes

Stories

People
Stories
Plan a trip
Heritage Passport

Contribute

Suggest a site
Sign in
Privacy
Terms

Historical Heritage

Historical Sites

446 documented sites across the Arabian Peninsula

446site

13region

18category

al-Khuzaimiyya

Northern Borders Region — Saudi Arabia

A principal water station on the Darb Zubayda at Zarud, with a square pool, three basins, a fifteen-meter well, and fortifications. It is linked to Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who visited several times and composed poetry about nearby Zarud.

Hajj route

Samira'

Hail Region — Saudi Arabia

A principal Darb Zubayda station where pilgrims sighted the crescent moon, especially for Ramadan, and where Bedouin raids inflicted heavy losses on Hajj caravans. It lay between Fayd and al-Hajir and served as a critical water supply point.

Local heritage

‹1…17 18 19

Harrat Rahat

Makkah Region — Saudi Arabia

The largest volcanic field in Saudi Arabia, stretching south of Medina across twenty thousand square kilometers with more than nine hundred volcanic vents. Its last major eruption in 654 AH (1256 CE) sent lava flows toward the holy city, stopping less than four kilometers away.

Poetic / literary

Yadhbul

Saudi Arabia

A famous Najdi mountain on the Yamama road, named in Imru’ al-Qays and geographers; some researchers identify it with Jabal Subha today.

Poetic / literary

Jabalā Abān

Saudi Arabia

Abān al-Abyad and Abān al-Aswad, the twin mountains of Qassim with Wadi al-Rummah between them — strong continuity from poetry to today’s map.

Archaeological

Dhariyah

Riyadh Region — Saudi Arabia

A historic town in al-Qassim and one of the best-known stops on the Basran Hajj road, mentioned in pre-Islamic poetry and classical geography. It offered water and commerce between Hafar al-Batin and the towns of al-Qassim.

Hajj route

Usfan

Makkah Region — Saudi Arabia

An ancient Hajj stop between al-Juhfa and Mecca, about thirty-three kilometers from the holy city. The Prophet passed through on the Farewell Pilgrimage and during the Conquest of Mecca, and an Ottoman qishlah still stands on the site.

Pre-Islamic

Tabalah

Asir Region — Saudi Arabia

A historic town in southern Hijaz that housed the pre-Islamic idol temple of Dhu al-Khalasa, and appears in an old Arabic proverb. The Prophet sent Jarir ibn Abd Allah al-Bajali to destroy the idol, after which the surrounding tribes embraced Islam.

Hajj route

Rabigh

Rabigh — Makkah Region — Saudi Arabia

A historic Hijazi coastal city used as a miqat for ihram after ancient al-Juhfa declined. It lies north of Jeddah on the Red Sea and was a stop on the Prophetic coastal Hajj route; today it hosts a major industrial port.

Local heritage

Al-Sir Region

Riyadh Region — Saudi Arabia

A historic Najdi region between the Safra highlands to the west and Nufud al-Sir to the east, its central lowland dotted with villages and springs, documented by Hamad al-Jasser as home to twenty-five ancient settlements including al-Sukran, founded around 1242 AH.

Hajj route

Hafar al-Batin

Eastern Region — Saudi Arabia

The gateway of the Basran Hajj road into the Arabian Peninsula, known for the deep wells people dug in Wadi al-Batin to reach groundwater. Today it is a modern city in the northeastern region near Kuwait.

Poetic / literary

Abraq Rakis

Saudi Arabia

A surviving abraq/mountain name near Balagha in ‘Aliyat Najd — Rakis in poetry and place-lexicons, linked to al-Qalib and Farqayn.

Archaeological

Khalsa Pavement

Qassim Region — Saudi Arabia

A five-kilometer stone-paved road on the Darb Zubayda built to protect pilgrims from mud in flatlands that turned boggy after rain. Flanking stone walls and underground channels rank it among the route's greatest engineering achievements.

First Saudi state

Al-Baroud Town

Riyadh Region — Saudi Arabia

One of the oldest towns of the al-Sir region west of Riyadh, famed for a four-month siege that withstood Sharif Ghalib ibn Musaid's campaign against the First Saudi State and remembered as the birthplace of the geographer Hamad al-Jasser.