Over 10,000 artifacts retrieved

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA)has helped Jeddah to retrieve more than 10,000 of its artifacts from other countries. Prince Sultan bin Salman said, "Retrieving antiquities has now become a national issue and the government will continue its efforts to bring back Saudi artifacts scattered across the world." It is hoped that these artifacts will be housed in a new museum as plans to establish a major Islamic and national museum at Al-Khozam Palace in Jeddah and a Qur’an museum in Madinah are gathering pace.

Further, Prince Sultan said the Jeddah would host the first international conference on architectural heritage on April 18. “The commission is committed to bringing about a qualitative change in people’s perception of national heritage and antiquities. We have presented an application to UNESCO to register the historical area of Jeddah and we hope it would be voted on after two years,” he said. “We are now working on a number of programs to develop Old Jeddah into an architectural heritage site of international importance but we are facing a lot of challenges,” the prince said.

Arab News