These days, Jeddah looks like many other modern cities: busy shopping malls packed with international luxury brands, a thriving café and coffee shop culture and a walkable oceanfront district where families socialize on the weekends. But the beating heart of this city, Al-Balad, is more than a thousand years old, and it has been immaculately preserved as a reminder of Saudi Arabia’s history – specifically, Jeddah’s role as a key point of entry for religious pilgrims.
a music entertainment company, held a music festival called Balad Beast in December 2022. Over two nights, Al-Balad’s old buildings were lit up while acts like Busta Rhymes, Xzibit and Lupe Fiasco performed alongside some of the Arab world’s biggest musicians. Parry, the historian and author, has been to Jeddah a dozen times but says he always finds himself returning to Al-Balad. “Although there used to be very tall buildings in other cities like Mecca, they’ve largely been taken away now.
because it's an old fashion Arabic town before the oil money , it have somethings that mega money can't build .
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Balad survived thanks to the Ottomans.