Aerial views of the Buraidah Dates Carnival in Saudi Arabia reveal an unusual scene

- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is famous for its dates, but have you ever seen this huge amount of fruits gathered in one place? You will see these scenes in pictures documented by the Saudi Abdul Rahman Al-Sahli of the Buraidah Dates Carnival in the city of Buraidah in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia.

In an interview with the Arabic website Ofoq News, the Saudi photographer described the event as a “visually distinctive experience,” explaining that “the place is full of movement and details, from cars loaded with dates and vendors to the movement of visitors and the organization of the market.” Al-Sahli said: “This was my first visit to the carnival, and what struck me most was the amount of activity in the place and the details that are difficult to notice all from one angle.”

What is striking about some of Al-Sahli’s photos is that she documented the place from the air using a drone, which added a different dimension. The Saudi photographer explained: “From the ground you see the details of the scene, but from the air the picture appears broader, from the movement of cars, the distribution of dates, and people, while the organization of the place turns into a visual composition that cannot be observed in the same way from ground level.”

In his photographs, parked trucks loaded with boxes of dates appeared in a way that suggested a hidden order amid the dynamism of the event. The Saudi photographer confirmed: “I was keen to combine two types of photos: aerial and close-up, so that the story would be more complete.”

The aerial photos in particular astonished Internet users, as the Saudi photographer considered that their interest was due to showing these photos “a familiar scene in an unfamiliar way.” He continued: "I think that seeing the market from above, the density of cars, dates, and the movement of people inside it, made the viewer discover details that he might not have noticed while he was in the place."

It should be noted that the Qassim region’s annual production of dates exceeds 587 thousand tons of various varieties that exceed 100 varieties, as Al-Qassim leads the Kingdom’s regions in the volume of annual production of dates, according to what was reported by the official website of the Saudi News Agency (SPA).