RIYADH: While most people know Prince Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud as the first Arab and Muslim astronaut to travel into space, the years that followed were devoted to a different mission: reviving Saudi Arabia’s heritage and documenting the people whose lives helped shape the Kingdom’s history through numerous publications.
That mission was on display at Al-Uthaibat farm in Diriyah, where Prince Sultan honored one of the Arab world’s foremost conservation architects, Egyptian heritage expert Saleh Lamei Mustafa, with the launch of “Pages from a Lifetime: Seventy Years in the Corridors of Heritage,” a book documenting Lamei’s seven decades of work preserving the region’s architectural legacy.
“Pages from a Lifetime: Seventy Years in the Corridors of Heritage,” is a book documenting Lamei’s seven decades of work preserving the region’s architectural legacy. (Supplied)
Throughout his career, Lamei contributed to the restoration of some of the region’s most significant heritage landmarks, including the Qibla Wall of Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, Baalbek and Al-Azhar Mosque.
Through the nonprofit Al-Turath Foundation, Prince Sultan has spent decades preserving Saudi Arabia’s architectural heritage and documenting the people whose lives helped shape the Kingdom’s history.
