Thi Ain village after the trial reopening this year. – SPAAl-BAHA – The historic Thi Ain village of Al-Baha reopened recently to large numbers of visitors after being neglected for 30 years. The rehabilitation of the site took place under the auspices of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) and the local community. The village's 59 houses were built hundreds of years ago on the foot of a hill of white marble. The homes are of various sizes, ranging from one floor to four, and are connected by carefully located walkways. A mosque is located in the central part of the village between the houses and the village's farms. The farms produce bananas, lemons, and basil and is watered all year by its ain (spring), after which it was named. Over the last 30 years, the village was abandoned completely, the houses were neglected and often damaged by unaware visitors and by nature. The local community did not benefit from the area, except for some farmers. Two years ago a cooperative society named Thi Ain Village Society was formed to preserve the urban heritage and property of the village's former residents, and to exploit it as a tourist site, in the interests of the local community. At the same time, the Al-Baha Tourism Promotion Body started to implement a five-year, three-stage development and rehabilitation plan. The first and current stage involves rehabilitating the village's paths that end at a waterfall, erecting benches, reopening the mosque and rehabilitating some of the buildings as the village's museum. This phase also includes building a visitors' center, shops, public toilets, and a park for which the region's mayoralty has allocated SR4 million.
