Riyadh has two tall buildings which stand out on the skyline…….. when there isn’t a dust storm. Today I caught the free compound bus to the Kingdom Centre which is one of the two skyscrapers in the city. The Kingdom Centre consists of a four storey mall adjacent to a 65 storey tower which is sometimes locally known as the “Bottle Opener” (for obvious reasons).
The exterior of the tower is clad in butt joined mirror glass which makes it very difficult to see the individual floors and also gives it a ‘scale’ effect. The plan was take a ride to the top where there is a 65 metre ‘skybridge’ joining the two ‘horns’. From this height there are supposed to be spectacular views of Riyadh.
OK.. I photographed a poster for the above picture! 
My journey to the Skybridge didn’t happen. Why? Well none of the literature mentioned opening time. I arrived at 9.30am to find the complex almost deserted apart from cleaners. After waiting around until 11.00am I finally found someone who was able to tell me it opens to the paying public at 12.00 noon. My bus back to the compound left at 11.45am. Perhaps I’ll go another day! I should have anticipated this problem as the local population aren’t ‘morning’ people.
The four storey shopping mall was… well boring (for me). You could categorize the shops as either
- clothing
- jewellery
- watches
- fast food
- shoes
Moreover a number of them excluded single males (families only)
If you look closely in the above and next photos you will notice that; unlike the lower three floors; the top floor has a higher opaque glass screen.
This is because it is the “Ladies Only” floor where they can take off their Abayas (cloaks, headdress and veils) to shop without having to be concerned about males seeing their intimate parts. It’s a beautiful building but none of the shops interested me. Oh, it had a Debenhams, Marks & Spencers and H & M.
In future it might be better to take the free afternoon bus rather than the 9.00am. More shops should be open. The compound runs a free bus every Saturday and the destination is cycled between the numerous main major malls in the city.
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