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Abha is the capital of Asir Province in south-western Saudi Arabia, set about 2,270 metres above sea level in the green Asir Mountains beside Asir National Park. Its mild climate has made it one of the kingdom's favourite summer escapes, and Saudis call it the Bride of the Mountain. Visitors come for Shada Palace, Al-Muftaha Village and the cool heights of Jabal Sawda.
Abha was long the seat of the Al Ayed princes of Asir, who ruled under Ottoman authority until the First World War, and in 1920 the region was joined to the lands of Ibn Saud. Hilltop forts such as Shamsan and Al-Dqal still look down on the city, and Shada Palace, built in 1927, recalls its time as the regional capital.
Rain falls mostly from February to April, and snow sometimes dusts the higher peaks. Cable cars climb Green Mountain and drop into the cliff village of Al-Habala, while the stone tower houses of Rijal Almaa lie down the escarpment to the west.
Shada Palace, also called the White Palace, is a four-storey palace in central Abha completed in 1927 on the orders of King Abdulaziz and long used as the seat of the Asir emirate. Built in local Asiri style with decorated corners, it is now a folk museum of household tools, manuscripts and coins.
Al-Muftaha Village is an arts quarter in central Abha rebuilt in traditional Asiri style on the site of an old neighbourhood, with thick walls, small windows and stone rain ledges. It holds the King Fahd Cultural Center, the 3,800-seat Talal Maddah Theatre, galleries and shops for silver and honey.
Abha Art Street runs for about 200 metres through the heart of Abha, lined with jacaranda trees whose purple flowers open in spring, colourful umbrellas and works by local artists. Started by the artist Awad Zarib, it has 10 galleries, a stage for concerts and local cafes and restaurants.
Abha Dam closes Wadi Abha on the western edge of the city, a concrete wall 350 metres long and 33 metres high completed in 1974 to store rain and flood water for drinking. Its lake, about 2,200 metres above sea level, is ringed by gardens and family seating with views back over the city.
Shamsan Castle is an Ottoman fort on Jabal Shamsan in Abha, about 2,300 metres above sea level, built under governor Muhyiddin Pasha to guard the road climbing from the Shaar pass in the north. Made of stone slabs, it has three towers, each a different shape, and once had roofs of juniper beams.
Shaar Castle stands about 23 kilometres north of Abha above the Shaar pass, where the road drops from the Asir highlands towards the Tihama plain. Its oldest parts date from 1872, soon after the Ottomans took Asir, and its stone walls up to 90 centimetres thick are pierced with loopholes.
Al-Dqal Castle crowns a mountain top north-west of Abha, a long stone fort of 43.6 by 16 metres with a rounded northern end, built by the Ottomans to close the valleys and passes leading into the city. Most walls have fallen, but the western wall, the curved north wall and a stairway still stand.
Rijal Almaa is a village of stone tower houses about 50 kilometres west of Abha, over 900 years old and once a trading stop on routes linking Yemen with Mecca and the Levant. Some of its 60 buildings rise eight floors with coloured wooden windows, and a heritage museum fills the Al-Alwan Palace.
Jabal Sawda, north-west of Abha, is officially the highest peak in Saudi Arabia at 3,015 metres, its slopes covered in juniper forest and often wrapped in cloud. The village of Al-Soudah below is a tourist centre with a cable car to the top, and paragliding contests are held here every summer.
Asir National Park, founded in 1981, covers 6,490 square kilometres near Abha, stretching from the Red Sea coast up to peaks of about 3,200 metres. Mangroves line its shore, acacia woodland fills the foothills, and juniper and wild olive forests grow on the cool highlands above 1,600 metres.
Green Mountain is the summit of Jabal Dhirah in the centre of Abha, the highest point in the city, with views over every quarter. Its terraced slopes are lit bright green at night, which gave the mountain its name, and it has restaurants and a cable car station linking it with the city below.
Al-Habala is a village set below a sheer 300-metre cliff of the Sarawat escarpment, about 50 kilometres from Abha, whose people once climbed in and out on rope ladders, hence its name. King Faisal had a new village built for them, and today a cable car carries visitors down to the old houses.
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