By Innovation-sa on November 26, 2019 in News
In a ground-breaking celebratory event filled with historical reenactments, Ardah dance, displays of traditional culture and fireworks, Custodian of the two holy mosques King Salman laid the foundation stone to mark the launch of the $17 billion Diriyah Gate project around the UNESCO world heritge site at Diriyah.
As the Kingdom continues its transformation plan in line with the objectives of Vision 2030, the giga project will commence its work in January 2020 to create a global tourism destination by combining a modern city with world-class historical and cultural attractions.
Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of the Diriyah Gate project revealed plans to construct eight museums as part of the project in addition to planting a million trees in Wadi Hanifa, developing a 3.5 kilometer walking path overlooking the wadi, a new 15,000-seat cultural-performance center, sporting venues and plenty of souks. The project will include more than 20 hotels with a total of 3,100 rooms, conference rooms, exhibition centres, wedding halls, and hundreds of restaurants offering the finest local and international cuisines as well.
The square of King Salman, the Samhan Ampitheatre, the Square of the Commemmorative Stone of the Kingdom’s Hereos, the Mosque Square providing access to King Salman’s Mosque and the Historical Village Square where places, streets, gates, towers and other locations will be named after Saudi historical figures will be some of the major attractions at the Diriyah Gate project.
The new project that focusses on preserving and restoring the world heritage site and its historic treasures rather than demolishing the authenticity of the Najd architecture has already awarded contracts worth over 1 billion riyals to local and foreign investors and has more tenders in queue in the next few weeks.