When I first thought about Saudi Arabia, the image in my mind was quite simple: endless deserts, oil wealth, and a culture that felt distant and traditional. Like many travelers, I assumed the country was mostly closed to outsiders except for religious visits.
But travel has a strange way of breaking assumptions.
The more I learned about Saudi Arabia, the more I realized that the country I imagined and the country that exists today are very different. Beneath the desert landscapes and historic tra
