Al-Dar'i Quarter

Al-Dar'i is an old residential quarter in the town of Dumat al-Jandal, in the Al-Jouf region of northern Saudi Arabia. It lies at the heart of the old town, directly beside the Mosque of Omar ibn al-Khattab and close to Marid Castle.

Dumat al-Jandal is among the oldest settlements in northern Arabia. It is mentioned in Assyrian texts and was an important station on the caravan routes between the peninsula, the Levant and Iraq. Most of the buildings standing today date from the Islamic era, and they were raised on older foundations and layers going back to pre-Islamic times. The quarter remained inhabited until its residents moved to modern districts in the twentieth century.

The quarter consists of closely packed stone-built houses separated by narrow, winding lanes, some of them roofed over with rooms above. Visitors walk between stone walls and see the traditional method of construction, in which stone was combined with palm trunks and tamarisk wood for the roofs. Together with the neighbouring mosque and castle, it forms a coherent example of an old oasis town in northern Arabia.