They say that a visit to a museum is a search for beauty, truth, and meaning in our lives. It is recommended to go to museums as often as we can. Good thing, Saudi Arabia has a lot of museums where time is transformed into space. One of them is Al-Shareef Museum in the city of roses, Taif.
Riyadh is known for its National Museum of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom’s biggest museum that houses various exhibits and runs interactive tours. Outside the capital city, there are some private museums opened to the public that are also worth checking out. A few of them can be found in Taif, a city in Saudi Arabia’s west coast. Taif boasts of a long, impressive history that played a significant role in the pre-Islamic era. It was known to be a crossroad of traders and pilgrims in the Hejaz region. While the nice weather and the rose season are some of the main attractions of the city, its museums that show how far back Saudi’s history goes are also national treasures that can’t be missed.
The Al Shareef Museum is a private museum that has a lot of artifacts, memorabilia, and crafts collected by owner Al-Sharif Ali Bin Malbas for over 30 years. He traveled across Saudi Arabia to search for artifacts that are valuable to Saudi Arabia’s history and culture and displayed them in one place, thus the Al Shareef Museum was created in 2005 in the Umm Al-Sebaa neighborhood.
The artifacts in the museum are displayed according to their type and function in wide sections making it quite an easy and comfortable visit. The museum features vintage household wares, jewelries, clothes, toys, cameras, weapons, agricultural and medical tools, and more. The museum is filled with interesting bits and pieces that show the lives and times of desert dwellers. The most notable section is the replica of a small souk (historical market) that contains stalls and shops of artisans in the old days. Each shop contains the tools, machines, and materials used by the crafter (carpenters, barbers, goldsmiths, photographers, store owners, weavers, and more). Being in the middle of the “souk” feels like being back in the past, being in the midst of a bustling marketplace in ancient Arabia. Another noteworthy area features a selection of vintage cars including a Cadillac, Volkswagen and a few iconic red Ford trucks.
While museums nowadays are seen as mere places where old objects go to enjoy their final years, Al Shareef Museum is quite a walk in memory lane. It’s not just simply a place for things but it is the perfect place to see Saudi Arabia’s culture and heritage through things. The present generation and the future ones will learn from it and will instill a sense of community, a love for learning, and a feeling of gratitude for a past that made their present possible.
Al Shareef Museum
Taif, Saudi Arabia
Operating hours: 4:00 PM – 12:00 MN
Contact No.: +966-505-570-0008
