‘Roads of Arabia’ opens in Berlin

Chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) Prince Sultan bin Salman and Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit Wednesday opened the "Roads of Arabia Exhibition" at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The exhibition aims to demonstrate the archeological richness and historical heritage of the Kingdom. The exhibition has so far traveled to France, Spain and Russia and was visited by more than a million people. It will remain open to the public for three months. The opening ceremony was attended by more than a thousand people including the Saudi Ambassador to Germany Osama bin Abdul Majeed Shoboukshi, deputy chairman of the SCTA Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Ghaban, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information Saleh Al-Mighaileeth, representatives of a number of government and private German establishments, reporters and history researchers. In his opening remarks, Prince Sultan said the exhibition was first held in the Louvre Museum in October 2010, then the Caixa Forum in Barcelona and the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg in Russia. "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has given his royal consent to take the exhibition to major cities in the United States and Europe to give the people there an insight into the Kingdom's history and civilization," he said. "Through these exhibitions, we want to show to the people the greatness of our Islamic religion which respects all other divinely religions and embodies a message of peace and justice to the entire world," the prince said. Prince Sultan pointed out that the Kingdom was known for its religious, political and economic dimensions, but very little was known about its fourth dimension which is history and civilization. "This exhibition shows the entire world the historical richness and the great civilization of our country," he said. Prince Sultan said the exhibition was being held at a time when 24 expeditions, which includes Saudi historians, were exploring the historic sites of the Kingdom. He revealed that an exhibition would be held next month under the sponsorship of King Abdullah to display more than 14,000 antiquities recently procured from a number of citizens and some countries. Wowereit also delivered a speech in which he expressed his country's desire to further augment its bilateral ties with Saudi Arabia for the welfare of the two peoples. He said relations between Germany and Saudi Arabia date back to 1929 when the two countries signed a trade agreement and hoped existing ties would not only be confined to the economic sphere but extend to other humanitarian fields including cultural exchange. The exhibition contains about 400 antiquities collected from the National Museum in Riyadh, King Saud University Museum, King Abdul Aziz’s home and a number of other museums in the Kingdom. The pieces cover the history of the Kingdom from the Stone Age to the present time. More than half a million people are expected to visit the exhibition.