Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — The sixth conference on Red Sea antiquities and heritage will be held at Prince Salman Civilization Center in Tabuk from Sunday. The five-day event will be held under the slogan, “Lessons from the past and prospects of the present and the future”. The gathering will be jointly held by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) in collaboration with Exeter, Tabuk, Jazan, Taibah and King Abdulaziz universities. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), deputy chairman of the SCTA for antiquities and museums Ali Bin Ibrahim Al-Ghabban said the conference was being held as part of efforts to make use of the relics and resources of the Red Sea in the light of experiments carried out in this field by a number of countries overlooking the international waterway. He said these countries' recent attempts to benefit from the resources of the Red Sea have had an impact on their economies and societies. He said archeological and historical research has proven that the Red Sea played an important role in a number of civilizations surrounding it. Al-Ghabban said 39 archeologists, historians and researchers specializing in social, humanitarian and natural sciences will present working papers to the conference. He explained that topics discussed by the conference would include, among others, past and current means of adaptation and interaction with the Red Sea environment. “This will help us find solutions to the current environmental problems.” Al-Ghabban said the conference would discuss a number of topics relating to the Red Sea including its submerged and floating antiquities, economic activities around it, communication between old civilizations, life in the old seaport cities, water storage and management systems, climatic changes, writing and linguistic communications, architecture, norms and traditions, handicrafts and others. He said a seven-day exhibition would be held during the conference featuring the participation of a number of government departments that will display their products and activities. He said at the end of the conference, a trip to a number of islands along the Sharma shores in Tabuk province would be organized for the participants. Al-Ghabban hoped the conference would come out with recommendations that would boost ongoing research work to better understand the old societies that lived and flourished along the Red Sea and make better use of the marine resources.
