��������Ƶ

RIYADH: Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), has approved the registration of the first group of 15 urban heritage sites in the National Urban Heritage Record.
The record is devoted to registering, preserving, rehabilitating and documenting urban heritage sites and their related research throughout the Kingdom.
It is run by heritage technicians and researchers working under the supervision of the National Urban Heritage Center (NUHC), an affiliate of the SCTH, with technical assistance from municipalities, governorates and universities across the Kingdom.
The heritage sites approved in the first group include Al-Masmak Palace, Al-Murabba Palace, Al-Ahmar Palace, King Abdulaziz Palace in Badiah in Riyadh, Al-Subaie House in Shagrah, Al-Saqqaf Palace in Makkah, Madinah Railway Station, Al-Khozam Palace in Jeddah, Shubrah Palace in Taif, Shaza Palace in Abha, Al-Ogair historic seaport buildings, Ibrahim Palace, Al-Khozam Palace in Al-Ahsa, Al-Rifai Houses in Fursan Islands, and Kaaf Palace in Al-Jouf.
The SCTH said Tuesday the registration of these sites in the national record was based on Article 45 of the Antiquities, Museums and Urban Heritage regulation.
Issued by a royal decree, it says: “The SCTH is to establish an urban heritage record in order to register all urban heritage sites in the Kingdom and protect them concurrent to the regulation.”
The SCTH president instructed relevant authorities to finalize the registration process, which includes listing, gathering information and schemes of urban heritage buildings, determining preservation areas and necessary controls, site maintenance and investment and making available land-ownership deeds.
In August, the NUHC launched a database project for urban heritage sites across the Kingdom to protect and promote urban heritage by developing a system that shares lists of national infrastructure and relies on the Geographical Information System (GIS).
The GIS is designed to capture, store, analyze, manage and present all types of spatial and geographical data.
The project consists of two parts. The first is devoted to creating a database of the most important heritage sites in the Kingdom using the GIS to document, classify, record and manage the sites. The second part is devoted to creating a database to assist in the marketing of urban heritage sites as tourist products, and help promote heritage tourism in particular and domestic tourism in general.