Surviving the heat: Visual Stories of Saudi Arabia’s Summer by Kristina Matveeva

This is a story about how I spent my first summer in Saudi Arabia and resisted the reality of its clear skies and +45°C every day as best I could. I lived a normal life: going to work, grocery shopping, exercising, and drawing what is around me, but in a new temperature range. Living in European countries, I was used to summer being the best time for sketching, and I had to put this concept to the test on the streets of Saudi Arabia, where July and August are the hottest months of the year. I continued to draw all summer, but it required special efforts and tricks. It turned out that the most challenging part of life in a place with such high temperatures is accepting that it is really hot outside and going out, especially at noon when the sun is shining and even shadows disappear from the streets, is not worth it under any circumstances. Even if you really want to or need to! I had to learn this lesson from my own mistakes. I drew my first summer and stepped into winter with relief. I invite you to get to know my experience and learn how to survive extremely high temperatures and who, in reality, the summer heat in Saudi Arabia is so good for.

When does the summer really start?

How to find out when summer in Saudi Arabia, which everyone scared you about, has finally started? Probably the most reliable sign is the start of the school summer vacation and the departure of friends and acquaintances to cooler places on the map. We decided to celebrate one of these departures at the Najd national restaurant. From the outside such restaurants looks like a small fortress. Inside, the building is constructed like a closed well, with rooms arranged around covered galleries, and a small green lawn with low trees, bushes and plants in the center. Direct sunlight rarely reaches the center of such a building, and water sprinklers make spending time there enjoyable. Such traditional architecture makes sense when temperature starting to increase day by day.

We missed the right entrance and ended up in the common area, where usually only men relax, instead of the family area, where each room is protected by curtains from the eyes. Men gather here in groups and slowly drink tea, sitting on cushions and carpets placed in designated rooms separated by low walls. Water sprinklers hang on the walls, there is no direct sunlight, and thick walls protect from the heat. We spread a large woven palm trees napkin on the carpet and served food. Kabsah (rice cooked with chicken or lamb), samosa (a fried South Asian pastry with a savoury filling), vegetable salad, tahini, and obligatory black tea with mint. Let’s consider this farewell traditional dinner the beginning of summer!

Everyday Life in Riyadh

Some lucky people living in Saudi Arabia have the luxury of having a swimming pool as part of their housing infrastructure. When we first moved to Saudi Arabia, on Friday mornings (the weekends in KSA are on Friday and Saturday), we used to go to the empty pool to have breakfast. It was too cold to swim. Now in June, the only way to escape the heat is by being in the pool, preferably before 9-10 am because by noon, the UV level rises to an extreme level of 13. I have never seen such values in my life before. Honestly, I would really like to know how much water evaporates from the pool in a day in July or August. Although it might not evaporate at all, because a unique fauna has formed around the pool with palm trees, around be the wall of bushes and grass around. Cats and birds also come here to refresh themselves with water. It’s a good way to endure the heat, but as soon as you step 10 steps away from the pool, you already want to go back. How to walk home 500 meters under the scorching sun? This is actually a true moment when you realize that traditional cloth really makes sense. You do want to cover you hands, shoulders, face and even legs as much as possible so that not even a centimeter of your skin is reachable by scorching sun.

One way to avoid the summer heat and to go out is actually shopping malls. They are very popular recreational area for residents of Riyadh or other cities. You can spend hours trying to park near by one of the biggest. In the summer, when even after sunset it’s still around +40 degrees, it is practically the only place for walks that is accessible to everyone. Here you can stroll, admire shop windows, and not spend a single thing if you want to. It’s a nice and diverse route through the enclosed air-conditioned space, where it is impossible to tell the time or the season.

Outdoor Activities

In the summer, due to the heat, many locations that have limited or paid entry in winter become free and accessible. For example, Diriyah – a historical city that is believed to be the birthplace of modern Saudi Arabia, with traditional mud-brick buildings. Admission starts at 5 PM, when the sun barely starts to touch the horizon and doesn’t scorch as much. However, the air temperature is still high, so by the time we reached the narrow streets of the museum city, we were ready to seek refuge in any museum space as long as it had air conditioning. We were lucky. The museum indeed had air conditioners. Along with a panoramic window and a view of the preserved walls of the mud-brick city.

City Life – Al Maswak Castle

The most difficult thing about accepting the summer heat is that you can’t get used to the fact that going outside during the day is not worth it. Once again, I fell for the coolness of the air-conditioned room and went out an hour before sunset. Standing on the edge of the sun-drenched square, I remembered a phrase from Lawrence of Arabia’s diary that the best way to cross to the opposite side of the square is to walk along its three shaded sides. So true!

Work experience – KAFD Sketch

When you work in an office every day with its blue glazing, you don’t really notice the heat. Leaving home in the morning, you find yourself in a car with a powerful air conditioner, and when you arrive at the office, you find yourself in an air-conditioned room again. My desk in the office is not facing a window, and the cold light from the window combined with the +18 on the air conditioner triggered thoughts in me that today is a wonderful sunny winter day, the kind where the brighter the sun, the lower the temperature. A couple of times I deceived myself and went out for lunch somewhere nearby. 100 meters to the cafe didn’t seem so daunting in one direction, but on the way back, when the office’s cold reserve had already evaporated and the cafe hadn’t had time to provide a full reserve, sweat gradually began to trickle down my back unnoticed. And in the hallway of the office building, you practically rush, trying to keep your composure.

And I drew this sketch while sitting on an open terrace of a cafe in the Financial District. It’s already mid-August, right? It shouldn’t be that hot! So what if the air temperature in the app is +40! These are some other +40! It’s sunset now! Workers from construction sites were coming towards me, work on the streets for them doesn’t stop even in July or August.

On the cafe terrace, there was only me and the guys who were wiping the dust, getting ready for the opening. Around were water coolers. It’s when the fan sprays water and spreads it around. I sat right under such a cooler, so sometimes water would drip directly onto my sketchbook. It was bearable, but after 20 minutes, I turned as red as a lobster. The only thing that saved me was that the sunset, and with the darkness, the air gradually became cooler. An amazing power of sunset in Saudi Arabia is that usually, as darkness falls, people gradually start disappearing from the streets, but here it’s the opposite. As soon as darkness fell on the Financial District, my terrace attracted more people. There were office workers from nearby offices, numerous security guards from construction sites, families with children who came to walk in a well-equipped place with a cafe after sunset. I finished the sketch with a face flushed from the heat.

Qassim Dates Festival

August has started, which means it’s time for us to go to the Date Festival in the Al Qassim province. It’s a 300 km drive from Riyadh to Buraydah in the Qassim province. Along the road, there is a monotonous desert landscape with very little vegetation. It’s a flat plain. The thermometer shows 45°C. Inside the car, thanks to the air conditioner, it’s comfortable and sometimes even cold. Endless fields of solar panels. There was a car accident on the opposite lane with rescuers on a helicopter. Suddenly, along the road, there is a stretch of sandy desert with bright orange sand. A sandstorm hit and the wind lifted the sand into the air, causing rain. It’s amazing, there hasn’t been rain in Riyadh for probably five months since April. We enter the city after noon. The city is empty. Not many cars or people.

Al Qassim region is an agricultural area where the largest date festival takes place, which we plan to visit tomorrow. But first, let’s take a look around!

Buraydah Dates Festival

This house is the oldest in the city. It was built at the end of the 14th century, according to the tour guide”. We turn around in surprise. “The 14th century according to the Hijri calendar. It is now the year 1445 according to the Islamic calendar from the Hijra (the migration of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Muslims from Mecca to Medina). No way! Mud houses don’t last that long”. It seems that the average lifespan of a mud house is 50-70 years. Every rain destroys an adobe house and it needs to be rebuilt. Luckily, the rains don’t come often. In this region, mud houses have a white stripe along the top of the walls. It’s not decoration, but natural cement – some kind of local clay that solidifies tightly and is not washed away by water. It also helps the house withstand longer. I have always wondered why, despite the overall rounded shape of mud houses, their walls are adorned with convex sharp triangles. It turns out that this is also a way to protect mud houses from rain. The water doesn’t flow down the wall, but runs down to the tip of the triangle and falls to the ground, bypassing the wall and minimizing damage. Trees also grow in this region, which means they can be used for construction. But wood is only used for the roof. Cross beams are laid on the roof, and palm leaves are laid on top of them. It seems that everything is covered with a layer of clay from above. So palms are not only used to produce dates, but also a material for construction. They also make water containers out of their trunks, for example, like buckets.

We were taken to a guest room where all the walls were adorned with teapots, and we were served coffee with dates. It turns out that the more teapots on the walls, the more hospitable the host. And guests are first treated to coffee with something sweet before serving food. Then comes the main course, and then sweet tea with something neutral. And I always wondered why there are more people sitting in coffee shops at 8 p.m. than in cafes and restaurants. In the cool room of the mud house, we waited for sunset to go explore the city further.

Unaizah Market Square 

On the market square, people gathered for the evening prayer. The sun had set, and it was finally possible to take a short walk. The stalls stood empty with their doors open; the male owners had gone to pray, while the female owners remained in their places. They greeted us cheerfully, showing and explaining the unique features of their products using hand gestures. We wanted to buy water and tea, but they treated us to them instead. The entire market square was dotted with small couches and water coolers. When we arrived, the square was still empty. However, men started to arrive, and families with children came as well. The men formed groups, presumably to discuss important matters, while the women strolled through the market stalls. On our way back from the market, we discovered a small shop selling the most delicious “Kilija” cookies filled with date syrup and spices in the dough. It’s time to sleep. Tomorrow we have to wake up at 4 am!

Buraydah Dates Festival Market Sellers

We arrived at the Dates Festival Auction at 5:30 in the morning, and it was already late. The sun was up, which meant that in a couple of hours it would be hot outside. Now it is just below +40. At the auction, the trade takes place from pickup trucks lined up in rows. There are two lines of cars, one empty for those who have already sold everything and are ready to go home. By the way, these pickups can only be purchased by locals, others do not have access to this type of car. On the square, here and there, you can already see patches of bare ground, but there are still a huge number of cars from which different varieties of dates are sold. We were there in early August, which is the season for the Shukari variety. The yellow morning light illuminates the yellow skins of the sweetest and most sugary dates.

There are a total of 11 million date palm trees in the province and there are 17 varieties of dates. Date palms are very temperamental. They grow slowly – 3 steps per year. They begin to bear fruit after 5-10 years. The taller the tree, the more difficult and expensive it is to handle, so old and tall palms are abandoned or pruned and wait for them to start growing again. In terms of time, this takes as long as growing from a seedling. The longest process of growing a palm tree is from a pit. It can take up to 10 years, which is why the most efficient way to grow a palm tree is from a sucker that the palm tree itself produces.

Buraydah Dates Festival Market Marketing

The auctions take place right on the spot. Farmers deliver their goods to Marketing Agencies, which handle the sales. The lot is put up for sale and the seller loudly announces the price from the roof of the truck. The price rises, and the dates are sold. The value of the seller lies in their loud voice and ability to conduct long negotiations. They can be paid 15-20 thousand rials per month for such work, but it only exists for 3 months a year during active sales. Sales go through the marketing agency. Payments are arranged through checks. At the end of the season and festival, farmers receive their earnings. No one pays anyone in cash, they issue a check and the buyer goes to pay it. Here, dates are sold for both the domestic market and for export. Dates are sorted and sent. You can immediately order cargo. Buy, pay, and when the truck is ready, the cargo will be delivered. Children run between the rows here. They are learning the profession.

Moving from one car to another, we tried dates here and there. When leaving the market stalls, you could find dates stones in all our pockets. The biggest difference in the dates sold at the auctions is that they are fresh dates, not their dried brothers that later scatter around the world. During the season, it is important to fill the freezers with fresh dates so that they do not dry out under any circumstances because every household should have a supply of fresh dates until the next season. You use them to meet your guests, to break your Ramadan feast, to enjoy the bitterness of your morning coffee.

Buraydah Dates Festival Market People

The last part of the auction consisted of a craft exhibition, where you could get acquainted with local craftsmen, watch a theatrical performance, which was a novelty for the Kingdom, telling about the life of the region, listen to the melodies of peasants who work hard on the region’s difficult land.

It’s amazing that such challenging weather conditions can create such a delicacy as dates. And in such variety! It is the combination of high temperatures and dryness that allows dates to acquire sweetness. So, while a hot August is a burden for everyone else, in Al Qassim, a hot and dry August is a joy. This means there will be plenty of delicious and sweet dates, served in various forms until next summer.

Buraydah Animal Market Milk Camels

Have you ever seen a flying camel? No, but look to the left,” our guide said, driving the car, talking on the phone, waving his hand to the left. They were loading a young camel into the truck with a crane. It hung with its legs and neck spread out in different directions. It was clear that he did not like the event. It was clear that we had arrived at the camel market. Getting out of the car, Abdulaziz took a thin stick of medium length. We were surprised, wondering why he took it! We had no idea where we had arrived. At the camel auction, there are three zones: meat, milk, and beauty. We stepped out of the car right into the thick of the auction. There were many people (handlers and buyers) and animals around. For safety, most animals are tied up. Some completely, when both the front and rear legs are tied and the camel cannot stand and lies on the ground, and some partially, then it tries to move in various unimaginable positions. Animals are also moved from place to place with at least one leg tied. It seems uncomfortable, scary, and painful for the animals. The noise from the roaring animals is terrible. Just try to dodge their teeth, hooves, and tails. It turned out that the stick was needed to pave the way between the animals.

When the auction participant finished with the purchases, the tied-up camels are loaded into the truck with lifting cranes. The animals roar in fear. I hope that their life gets better afterwards. When they are brought to the herd in the location and released for free grazing. When traveling outside the city, we often encounter herds of grazing camels walking gracefully from bush to bush on the scorched earth. They look well-groomed and calm. It is important to understand that there are no wild camels left in Saudi Arabia. All camels belong to someone, which means they were bought at one of these markets.

Meanwhile, at the milk market, there are groups consisting of a female and several camel calves. A female camel only produces milk when she has a calf, so in order to successfully sell the animal, a camel calf must be placed next to it. In the summer, all camel calves are approximately the same age, because conception occurs on the coldest day of winter, and female camels carry the calves for a year. In other words, all the camel calves at the market are about 6 months old. If, by any chance, a camel calf loses its mother, another female will not accept it just like that, so they resort to adoption techniques. The female’s eyes are closed, a stone is placed in the vagina, which stays there for several hours, then the stone is removed, the female thinks she has given birth, her eyes are opened, and the camel calf is next to her. And she accepts it and agrees to feed it.

Buraydah Animal Market Beauty Section

We enter the beauty zone. Camels here are slightly different. Even for camels, humans have come up with beauty standards: a more prominent hump, voluminous, protruding lips, long and fluffy rows of eyelashes. As Abdulaziz tells this, he affectionately strokes the animal that has stuck its head out of the enclosure. The animal is enjoying. But we are not. It’s already 8:30 in the morning and sweat is just flowing down my back. August is the hottest month of the year. The hotter and drier it is, the better the dates turn out.

Despite the intensifying heat, we head to the auction zone for beautiful camels. We come across a display of females. They are led in circles, sometimes transitioning to a run, to showcase their beauty. Some specimens refuse to cooperate. In one corner of the pen stands a male. He is here to determine if the female brought for auction is pregnant. To determine if a female camel is pregnant, she needs to be brought close to the male. If she is pregnant, she will raise her tail, as if indicating that she is full. Conversely, if she is not pregnant, she will lower her tail. The male understands the difference clearly. He bites the female’s neck, forcing her to sit down. A specially trained person with a paint spray can marks pregnant females with a vertical line, and draws a circle on the pregnant ones. Pregnant females are more valuable. The show’s host and commentator sit on the pen’s rails. Around him, people crowd, eager to buy the most beautiful camel. It’s only 9 in the morning, and it’s scorching hot. We practically run to the car.

We return to the hotel to get at least an hour of sleep. We leave at noon. There is not a single person on the street and a complete absence of shadows. Barely leaving the city, we encounter a very strong sandstorm. Sand is pouring from the sky. We need to refuel, but everything is closed. Except for one lone gas station attendant. But he cannot leave his workplace. He is afraid that the wind will blow away his chair. We get home tired and save. Our car is full of fresh dates, “Kilija” cookies and new experience. Our pockets are full with dates stones.

Sketching outdoors – Natural Ark

Still, somewhere in early August, we gave up and stopped going out into the city or nature. We accepted the fact that the heat was almost unbearable. On weekends, we only ran from the car to the grocery store, and on weekdays, we went out for a walk late in the evening. I kept asking my colleagues where is the winter relief they promised me. They kept promising but never forgot to turn on the Air conditioner on every morning. But after the hot months of July and August, somewhere in October, the weather suddenly improved so much that for the first time since our trip to Burayda, we decided to venture outside the city. We spent the whole day on the road, moving from place to place, and at sunset, we brewed tea on a camping stove in the canyon. We climbed up a hill and were able to sit in the shade of the Sand Arch. While I was sketching, my companions didn’t die from the heat and were able to wait for me. Did we actually survived the winter? I mean, you do get my point that when in the North you dream so that winter will pass quickly, but here in the Middle East, you wait for summer to end.

First Wadi Hanifa Plein Air Sketch

That summer had come to an end became clear when an invitation to a plein air meeting appeared in the local group of artists.This group had been silent on WA since mid-June. But one night in October, it woke up from a long summer sleep with a message about the start of the plein air season. I missed the first meeting, but joined in November. It was nice to be outside again and paint not from the window of a car or indoors, but sitting on the street in a sweatshirt, with sweet tea in a thermos and a falafel sandwich. Artists, like all other groups around, enjoyed the opportunity to spend time outdoors and celebrated the arrival of winter with picnics. Here and there, families with picnic baskets would appear. Winter hats somehow signaled that my first summer in Saudi Arabia was coming to an end. And now I’m looking forward to winter, which I’m sure I will like!