Tayebat Museum Visit

Al Tayebat International City for Science and Knowledge, in Jeddah's Al Faisaliyyah district, is a private museum complex built by the late Sheikh Abdul Raouf Khalil to house a collection he spent a lifetime assembling. It is the largest and strangest cultural stop in the city, and it is not remotely a normal museum.

Start with the building

The complex is built in traditional Hijazi style: coral-toned facades, carved wooden rawasheen bays, courtyards, and staircases that go on longer than you expect. Several linked buildings, four floors, hundreds of rooms. Some visitors come mainly to see the architecture done properly on a large scale, which Al-Balad can no longer show you in one piece.

What is inside

The collection is arranged in themed wings rather than a single chronology:

• Pre-Islamic Arabia — Nabataean, Thamudic and South Arabian pieces, inscriptions and coins.
• Islamic art and manuscripts — Qurans, calligraphy, metalwork, ceramics and textiles.
• Models of Makkah and Madinah — the Haramain shown as they were at different periods.
• Old Jeddah — reconstructed rooms, household objects, traditional dress, trades and shopfronts.
• Saudi heritage — the founding of the state, arms and armour, majlis interiors from across the regions.
• Smaller sections on world civilisations, natural history and public heritage.

The labelling is uneven. Some rooms are carefully explained; others present a wall of objects and leave you to it. This is exactly why a guide is worth asking about at the ticket desk.

Tickets and hours — read this bit

Entry starts around SAR 50, with reduced tickets for children and rates for groups.

Hours here are the problem. This is a privately run complex, and over the years it has kept irregular times, closed for periods, and opened for booked groups outside its posted schedule. Telephone or message ahead on the day you intend to go, and have a second plan. It is a long drive for a locked gate.

How long

Two hours is the honest minimum and most people use it all. Anyone who reads labels properly can spend four here without effort. If you only have ninety minutes, pick two wings and do them well rather than speed-walking the lot.

Practical notes

• A lot of stairs and a lot of walking. Comfortable shoes, and consider it if mobility is limited.
• Photography rules vary by room and have changed over time — ask at the entrance.
• Modest dress, as everywhere in the city.
• Indoors and air conditioned, so it suits the middle of a hot day.
• You will need a car. It is not walkable from the Corniche or Al-Balad.

Where it fits

Best as the daytime half of a day whose evening is Al-Balad. You see the Hijazi style intact and restored here, then walk through the real thing at dusk. The two together explain Jeddah better than either does alone.