This is Kingdom Centre, the second highest building in Saudi Arabia and the third tallest building in the world with a hole in it, which hosts a shopping mall, the Four Seasons Hotel and luxury apartments. Our next adventure will be to go to the top of the parabolic arch! Some info on the center here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Centre

Later in the afternoon today we were driven into old Riyadh, where the Deera Souk that we went to last week (see first image in this gallery for the whole adventure!) is located, along with the Masmak fort (conquered by Ibn Saud in 1902) and Deera Square (where public beheadings still take place) are located. My husband and I walked around for a short while and saw a few of the sights (there aren’t many, sad to say), but since there were very few women (but many men, mainly immigrant laborers) on the street, I felt a bit uncomfortable, even with my abaya and headscarf (which insists on trying to slip off all the time). We couldn’t go into the Masmak because it was men only today, although we strolled through the square and were watched by countless men who I’m sure were wondering why I was taking pictures.

Many of the images in this series were shot from a moving van, but our driver was great – once he understood that no, I didn’t want to go shopping, I wanted to take pictures – and he tried to accommodate me (and even took us places he thought I’d want to photograph). I do think, however, that the scene must have been pretty comical: the tinted window (meant to hide women in the vehicle) down, me with a headscarf half on, leaning out the window trying to snap things as they went by ;-). I was only partially successful, but will post what I can from our first venture out in daylight to the old city.