AmericanBadu
Blog about the natural & cultural heritage of Saudi Arabia
about
I’m Joshua Van Alstine — an American writer and researcher living and working in Saudi Arabia. I document the natural and cultural heritage of the Arabian Peninsula, from Bedouin traditions to desert ecology, camel racing, falconry, and ancient history.
Category: Uncategorized
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I remember a time when people were shy to show the pride they had for camels. Somehow through a colonialist view the camel became a symbol of regression. I always found that dumbfounding, how can something so beautiful be synonymous with a lack of progress even though they were literally vehicles of progress in a…
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The fastest animal in the world is the falcon, which can reach a diving speed of over 300 km/h (190 mph). Although Arabs have been master falconers for over 9,000 thousand of years, this bird has still avoided being “domesticated” by all means. In earlier times, Bedouin herdsmen would capture falcons on their migratory journey from…
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There are more than 133 million Phoenix dactylifera L or the date palms in Saudi Arabia according to the National Center for Palms & Dates(NCPD) & وزارة البيئة والمياه والزراعة. Saudi Arabia has also become the world’s number one exporter of dates with a 1.7 billion SAR in export value. The date fruit is called…
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How fast do they actually run? In fact, camels in Arabia are called dromedary camels from the Greek dromos, meaning “running course.” Their very name is tied to speed. Not many people realize that a racing camel can hit 65 km/h in a sprint, and sustain around 40 km/h over longer distances. The robot jockey which…
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Palms are not trees. Botanically, palms (Arecaceae) are arborescent monocots. No true wood, no growth rings—the “trunk” is a dense column of fiber with scattered vascular bundles, and every new frond erupts from a single crown (lose that bud and the plant is done). There are about 2,600 species in about 181 genera worldwide. Fossils…
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The sheer variety of date cultivars are astounding. When compared to other palm plants, date palms have a very extravagant variety. The National Center for Palms & Dates(NCPD) reported that there are more than 300 varieties, other sources say up to 600, another said more than 3,000. In comparison coconuts only have about 80 different…
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🌴 🇸🇦 In 2024, the Kingdom produced nearly 1.9 million tonnes of dates from more than 30 million palm trees, achieving 119% self-sufficiency. Exports reached 351,000 tonnes of dates and by-products, generating SAR 1.695 billion ( about USD 452 million) a 15.9% increase over the previous year and shipped to 133 countries worldwide. The industry…
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🐪 🏁 Ladies and Gentleman Lets Get Ready To Ruuuuuumble! Crown Prince Camel Festival 2025 🐪 is here!🗓️ 2–12 September📍 Taif Camel Racecourse Already Guinness World Records largest camel racing tournament 21,637 camels lined up on 11 Sept 2024 and now back with scale and grandeur. Across 11 days, 249 races run in morning and…
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When future historians sift through the archives of interplanetary agriculture, they may discover that the first chapter was written not in the laboratories of Silicon Valley but in the furnace winds of the Rubʿ al-Khali. Here, in a landscape that looks like the unfinished draft of Mars, Saudi shrubs such as Haloxylon salicornicum الثَّرْمَد have…
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Astragalus spinosus — locally called al-qetad — is a tough, low, thorn-covered legume that carpets rocky and sandy ground across Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East, blooming with small pink-purple flowers in spring; its deep roots and nitrogen-fixing nodules stabilize fragile desert soils, enrich them for neighboring plants, and offer a prickly refuge for…