Heritage And Archaeology Management Report

Course Name
Course Code
Heritage and archaeology management -A case study of historic Al Rifai houses in Farasan
islands in Saudi Arabia
First Name
Last Name
Name of the institution

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................ 3
Background of the study............................................................................................ 4
Research objective..................................................................................................... 5
Research questions.................................................................................................... 6
Literature review........................................................................................................ 7
Research methodology............................................................................................... 9
Research strategy...................................................................................................... 9
Research approach..................................................................................................... 9
Collection of the primary data..................................................................................10
Secondary data collection........................................................................................ 11
Data collection methods........................................................................................... 11
Data analysis............................................................................................................ 12
Recommendations of the research...........................................................................12
Reference and sources of information......................................................................13
Appendices.................................................................................................................. 15
Introduction
The management of the natural heritage and conservation of historical and archaeological sites is
always regarded as most imperative in every country’s tourism sector (Job, 2017) This has been
done in many areas irrespective of whether they hold any marks of national heritage or not. This
means that rather than being a marked archaeological sites or places possessing marks of national
heritage developments have been taking place like expansion of infrastructure which has been

leading to archaeological items being destroyed to date. In countries like Europe, there was a
regulation that was reached at with the objective of protecting and preserving the Europe
heritage. This means that Europe was able to set a procedure to be followed in all matters that
involved its archaeological sites and the entire natural heritage. In Saudi Arabia kingdom,
tourism is on the fore front in getting foreign exchange through historical sites. The country of
Saudi Arabia has been in communication with European countries like France to help it maintain
and put in good standard some archaeological sites like the ancient tombs at Khuraiba at the
North West town of Al – Ula. These are some of the archaeological sites that need maintenance
to be a source of foreign income from tourism (Throsby,2016).The cultural heritage in the
kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the main source of income in tourism sector due to high
influx of tourists all over the world. In management of these wonderful sites and sources of
income, there needs to be enough distribution and allocation of resources to enable maintenance
of high standards and also help in processing of tourism visas to boost the tourism sector. It’s
always important to remember that every human being needs to know all the past activities that
were done by the ancient people and this can only be seen through the conservation of all sites
that show manifestation of activities of ancient man.
Background of the study
The country of Saudi Arabia is regarded as one of the countries that are rich in the cultural
heritage in terms of archaeological sites. History is evident in most of the regions like in the
Farasan Islands where Al Rifai houses are found. The Farasan Island in the kingdom of Saudi
Arabia has many archaeological sites. The islands contain many cultural heritages from military
houses that date back to the Ottoman rule in 1901.there is also a presence of a German house that
was also built in 1901 where coal that was used as a form of fuel to crossing the red sea was

stored. The other imperative attraction item in the islands ids the continuous activity of the
residents surrounding the island search of pearl in the deep waters. This old activity completely
left some fingerprints that are considered as cultural heritage as the buildings they used to live in
still exixt to date but in dilapidated state. These include the Al rifai houses and masjid of najdi.
This includes the houses of Al Rifai.The Al rifai houses are categorized as a cultural heritage site
as they are seen from the start that they were in a construction state. This is in other words
referred as the German house that was owned by Abdullah Ibrahim. These are not only
considered as the natural and cultural heritage but even as the main source of foreign exchange to
the country. In order to continue the getting the benefits of these houses, the governments needs
to come up with combined efforts together with the private sector for preserving them as Saudi
Arabia most preferred cultural heritage assets which will not only be a benefit to the government
due to tourism but also will act as a source of income to the people that will be involved in the
entire process of renovation of the houses. These renovations and revitalization of the houses
will lead to good development of the region surrounding the houses due to economic perspective
(Nomura, 2018).
The figure below shows some of the Al Rifai houses entrances that needs renovation.

At the look of the above house, its evident some of the damages may have been caused by
extreme weather conditions like wind. The reason for developing this study is for analysis of the
conservation measures that need to be activated by the government of Saudi Arabia. The
researcher chooses the systematic perspective because some of the theories relating to the topic
of the study are normally based on the beliefs that the countries in question do not put their
emphasis on the conservation of archaeological sites.
Aforementioned, the government of Saudi Arabia has seen the importance of preserving and
managing these sites as they have attracted the attention even at international and national levels.
This has been in deliberation on which methodology would be the best in the management of
these sites considering their authenticity and value they add to the tourism sector. This research
aims at the development of new methods for sustainable management and conservation of the
natural heritage (Zeayter, 2018).Internationally, the management and preservation of cultural
heritage has been on emphasis as it’s through this coordination that conservation objectives are
achieved.
Research objective
The main objective of this research work is to come up with a theoretical framework and validate
the same for conserving the cultural heritage at Farasan Islands. This objective shall be achieved
through the below aims;
 To implement the measures and guiding principles of the World heritage convention and
also the world best cultural houses conservation