Places · Ushaiger

Ushaiger, a mud-brick village on the pilgrim road

Settled 1,500 years ago, with hundreds of mud houses, seven quarters and twenty-five mosques.

The village

Ushaiger lies in Shaqra Governorate in the Riyadh Region, about 200 km from the city of Riyadh. People first settled here 1,500 years ago, and it became a stop for pilgrim caravans on their way to Makkah.

The village has around 400 mud-brick houses and twenty-five mosques, laid out in seven quarters around a rectangular central square, inside a wall with gates and towers.

How it was built

Walls of mud brick stand on limestone foundations. Roofs are made of tamarisk and palm trunks covered with palm-frond mats and mud, and larger buildings rest on stone columns coated in gypsum. Its residents began restoring it in 2003.

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