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Wrenching ourselves away from the comfort of the Marriott, and having said our goodbyes to Dr Fahd and Khalid at the King Abdul Aziz Foundation, we drove northwest towards Majmaa to meet Dr Al Askar. The area of interest to us in Majmaa was the old town - now abandoned but a wonderful example of Nejdi architecture. Following Dr Al Askar through the remains of the old town, we arrived at the Quarter of Al Askar and the house of his grandfather, Prince Abdullah Al Askar. The design of the house had been copied from an old castle in Riyadh belonging to Imam Faisal - the same castle had been reproduced in Qaseem and Shakra. The house consists of two distinct areas - a two storey women's section with a central open air courtyard and a two storey men's section with two majilis - formal meeting rooms - on each floor; a well outside was used by the house and the nearby mosque; and the guest rooms next to the first floor summer majilis overlooked the stables - and the prison! Following Dr Al Askar inside the house, we stepped into the ground floor winter majilis - on the walls, the intricate plasterwork that intrigued Captain Shakespear was still intact and the walls and ceiling were blackened from the soot of countless coffee fires. It is here that Shakespear and Prince Abdullah would have sat - smoking pipes, drinking coffee, chatting about Majmaa and it's history and discussing Shakespear's forthcoming meeting with Ibn Saud.
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From Majmaa we travelled to El Ghat to meet Dr Al Askar's cousins - the Governor of Ghat, Prince Abdullah Al Sudairi and his brother Mohhamed Al Sudairi - at their family's house - a beautiful Nejdi building that exhibits architectural influences from Iraq and Kuwait. Entering the majilis, with its high, smoke blackened ceiling, we were taken back 90 years - a fire burnt in the hearth, tea and coffee pots stood in alcoves around the walls and we were welcomed with the customary coffee, tea and dates.
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After a tour of the house we drove on to Mohammed Al Sudairi's farm; the area had a charm and an incredibly peaceful feeling that is hard to describe. Following a fabulous lunch at the farmhouse, Mohammed drove us out into our idea of a perfect garden - miles of beautifully sculpted dunes with a magnificent view across the farm and its neat crop circles, to the hills in the distance. A place to stop and contemplate our experiences of the last few weeks - but we had a schedule to stick to and time was against us...
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