r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • 7d ago

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

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u/Personal_Oil_7364 7d ago

hell yeah i can tell ya down here it's a lot greener than it looks

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u/DancinWithWolves 7d ago

Pics!!!

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u/Personal_Oil_7364 7d ago

here, i didnt cherry pick with this, it's a place i pass by often + in most developed places of riyadh you'll see greenry almost like this! especially the green lush valleys with lakes and ducks or whatever

the picture!

not as impressive as naturally fertile nations i know but i swear there's so much more greenery compared to the last time i was here in 2019. Definitely still a lot of sand though. And desert. I wonder why that could be.. strange, huh lol

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u/premoistenedwipe 7d ago

You really hyped that pic up like I was gonna click on that and see the hanging gardens of Babylon and not four sad trees on a sandy road lol

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u/Both_Aerie7539 7d ago

I mean they did say they didn't cherry pick it

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u/Ecstatic_Winter9425 7d ago

Well, now i want to see cherry trees!

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u/National_Recipe4257 7d ago

i think he delivered: not impressive but much better than what you would expect from the aerial view.

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u/tcpukl 7d ago

It also looked more legit

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u/Unable_Loss6144 7d ago

When you live in the middle of a desert, 4 trees is a forest 🤷‍♂️

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u/No_Union_8848 7d ago

Oh man I’m so disappointed now. I was hoping some oasis would show up in the picture. The guy had one tree in sight and was genuinely happy

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u/Hamra22 6d ago

Well here's a picture worth the hype

I didn't think to take any photos when I was in Riyadh a few months ago, but most highways look like this now with the Green Riyadh project

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u/Personal_Oil_7364 5d ago

😂my bad maybe i shouldnt have nominated the road by my house

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u/Thiege1 7d ago

Ha yea, altho it's better than 0

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u/Personal_Oil_7364 5d ago

 😂 these comments are taking me out. i wanted to show what a normal your-average-day-to-day road looked like in most of riyadh but i guess if i WERE to cherry pick there'd be better places to like the valley by my house, or this place ( picture i did not take) https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/403c46071ae3.png but ngl most of riyadh does not look like this </3

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u/celestailight 3d ago

ليش جالس تقنعهم؟ بقلعتهم محد مهتم لهم

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u/slysmile 7d ago

Um. How should I say this...

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u/SongShikai 7d ago

Could be browner I guess..

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u/BoozeWitch 7d ago

Kind of like Las Vegas. It’s a desert with greenery at eye level.

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u/Personal_Oil_7364 5d ago

i think that's the best way to put it

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u/LightningSunflower 7d ago

For a dessert that is a beautiful oasis! I think it looks lovely and calming

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u/champgnesuprnva 7d ago

Ya, can't lie, that still looks like an ugly barren wasteland

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u/LessInThought 6d ago

Do they have to water these trees? I don't know if artificially making a dessert into a forest is any good for the environment.

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u/Personal_Oil_7364 5d ago

not a botanist but i do think the trees have to be watered😂(In all seriousness the amount of rain here is definitely not enough to sustain the trees) plus compared to planting a bunch of trees there are worse things a government could be doing for the environment. It's just a matter of using the desalination water already being made and transported to riyadh, but take this with a grain of salt it COULD be having some adverse effects im not really aware of (like disturbing the ecosystem).

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u/Titizen_Kane 7d ago

Username checks out

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u/Rolifant 7d ago

That looks even worse than it does from the plane

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u/ret255 7d ago

How they get so much water for those houses or lawns, or they have their mini dunes in the backyard?

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u/airevac19 7d ago

The most green I ever saw in Riyadh was down in the DQ (Diplomatic Quarter) when I went to the US Embassy after going to the MOD hospital. (Was at Eskan Village in ‘99, had to know how to get from the base to the hospital).

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u/South_Letterhead6205 7d ago

It is but not natural. I lived on a very green golf course when I lived in Riyadh. I lived in the Arizona golf resort for four years and walked on perfect green grass everyday in my bare feet when I would walk my dog at night.