Al-Balad, Jeddah

Jeddah lies on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. Persians settled here in the 6th century and developed the harbour, and after the Arabs took power in the 7th century its role as a major port was secure. It channelled goods from Egypt, southern Arabia and India to Mecca, the centre of Islam, and became the gateway for pilgrims arriving by sea.

When Fatimid Cairo eclipsed Abbasid Baghdad in the 10th century, the Indian Ocean trade shifted from the Gulf to the Red Sea and Jeddah grew into a prosperous port. From 1425 the Mamluk sultans collected customs duties in Jeddah, and the city soon replaced Aden as the main harbour. A Portuguese fleet appeared before the city on 13 April 1517, but the attack ended in failure.

Narrow plots led to tower houses, especially in the north of the city, rising as high as seven storeys. Their walls were built of coral rubble in lime mortar with timber reinforcement, and carved wooden oriel windows called roshan drew air through the rooms. Most of the surviving tower houses were built by merchant families at the end of the 19th century. With more pilgrims and oil revenues the city spread beyond its walls, which were pulled down in 1947, and Historic Jeddah was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2014.