Al_Batʼha_(Riyadh)
Al Batʼha (Riyadh)
One of oldest commercial areas in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Al-Batʼha (Arabic: البطحاء, romanized: al-Baṭʼḥāʾ, lit. 'the wide valley'), also simply romanized as Batha,[1][2][3] is a colloquial umbrella term used for the partial agglomeration of six neighborhoods in downtown Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that are primarily situated along the al-Batʼha Street on the either edge of the now-dried up stream of Wadi al-Batʼha,[4] located between al-Murabba and the Qasr al-Hukm District. It is one of the oldest commercial districts in Riyadh and the financial nerve center of the city's downtown area,[5][6] covering east of al-Futah and al-Dirah whereas west of al-Amal, Margab, Thulaim and to some extent, al-Oud. It emerged in the 1940s as Hillat al-Kuwaitiyyah (Arabic: الحلة الكويتية, lit. 'quarter of the Kuwaitis') during World War II when a number of Kuwaiti merchants and traders chose to set up an auction market just outside the northeastern fringes of the erstwhile walled town.[7][8]
Besides being a open-air marketplace that hosts a number of large and medium-scale trading centers,[9] the surrounding locality has been the heart of the city's Bangladeshi community since the oil boom of the 1970s,[10][11] alongside Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos and Sri Lankans, who altogether contribute in almost 70% of the economic activity in the area.[12][13][14][15]
Traditional Kuwaiti goods accounted for majority of Batha's imports during the early days of its emergence , however, products from various countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, China, Taiwan, Switzerland, Vietnam and Thailand soon began increasing the diversity of Batha's trading centers.[16]
Public transport services were introduced In the area in the 1960s.[17] 1977, the Riyadh Municipality created the al-Batha Sub-Municipality,[18][19] one of the 16 sub-municipalities of Riyadh, that also includes two of five neighborhoods that constitute the Batha area, namely ad-Dirah and Margab.
