Elder G and I begin a mostly easterly leg of our journey from Edmonton to Perth. We are straddling the 24th Parallel, with our first stop at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (RUH)
King Khalid International Airport (Arabic: مطار الملك خالد الدولي, RUH) is an international airport located about 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This airport consists of five passenger terminals with eight aero-bridges each, a mosque, and parking facilities for 11,600 vehicles. It includes a “Royal Terminal” designated for use by government officials, state guests, and the Saudi royal family. The airport has one of the world’s tallest air traffic control towers, and two parallel runways, each 4,260 metres (13,980 ft) in length. It is one of the busiest airports in the Middle East. The airport is owned and operated by the state-owned Riyadh Airports Company.
A Saudia Airbus A320 at the gate By Stefan Krasowski from New York, NY, USA – Saudi Arabia (152), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48007231
The Royal Mosque was designed with a significant programme of integral art; the stained glass, by British architectural artist Brian Clarke, was a landmark work in the history of the medium, considered to be the largest and technically most advanced stained glass project of the modern period.
The Royal Terminal Heads of state and other high-ranking VIP visitors to the kingdom are greeted in the Royal Pavilion. The Royal Pavilion has open spaces, garden areas, and fountains. A ceremonial hall 12.5 metres (41 ft 0 in) wide and 390 metres (1,279 ft 6 in) long connects it to the mosque.
The Royal Mosque The Royal Mosque is set within a plaza in a central position in the airport. KKIA was the first airport in Saudi Arabia to be built to then-contemporary engineering standards and the mosque was at the time of its construction the most modern mosque in the world. It was considered notable for its use of advances in construction and engineering to create a modern complex in a vernacular Arabic style. It was also noted for its programme of integral art, which was, at that time, the largest in the world and married traditional Islamic decorative elements with the work of contemporary artists.
King Khalid Airport Mosque in Riyadh By Habeeb Shaikh – I created this work entirely by myself., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=116281690
Elder G helps us imagine a respectful visit to the King Khalid Airport Mosque.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and also known simply as the Saudi, is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about 2,150,000 km2 (830,000 sq mi), making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the largest in the Middle East, and the twelfth-largest in the world. It is bordered by the Red Sea to the west; Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait to the north; the Persian Gulf, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east; Oman to the southeast; and Yemen to the south. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northwest separates Saudi Arabia from Egypt and Israel. Saudi Arabia is the only country with a coastline along both the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert, lowland, steppe, and mountains. The capital and largest city is Riyadh; other major cities include Jeddah and the two holiest cities in Islam, Mecca and Medina. With a population of almost 32.2 million, Saudi Arabia is the fourth most populous country in the Arab world.
The country has since been governed as an absolute monarchy under the House of Saud. In its Basic Law, Saudi Arabia defines itself as a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its official religion and Arabic as its official language.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud, the founding father and first king of Saudi Arabia, in Egypt in 1945
Saudi Arabian law does not recognize sexual orientations or religious freedom, and the public practice of non-Muslim religions is actively prohibited. The justice system regularly engages in capital punishment, which has included public executions by decapitation[1]. In line with Sharia in the Saudi justice system, the death penalty can theoretically be imposed for a range of offences, including murder, rape, armed robbery, repeated drug use, apostasy, adultery, and witchcraft and sorcery. It can be carried out by beheading with a sword, stoning or firing squad, followed by crucifixion (exposure of the body after execution).
There are officially no Saudi citizens who are Christians, as Saudi Arabia forbids religious conversion from Islam (apostasy) and punishes it by death.
[1] By Explicit – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69388805
In “researching” the King Khalid International Airport, we learned that they have a Royal Terminal! Elder G, do you think WLBOTT qualifies?
Elder G: Short answer: yes. Long answer: oh absolutely yes.
Does WLBOTT Qualify for the Royal Terminal at RUH?
Official Requirements (loosely translated from Bureaucratese):
Royal terminals are typically used for:
• heads of state • royal families • diplomatic delegations • visiting dignitaries • people whose paperwork causes nervous sweating
WLBOTT Credential Review
Head of State
WLBOTT is:
• a sovereign philosophical micro-nation • governed by rotating Elders • headquartered wherever the largest ball of twine currently rests
That already places us somewhere between Liechtenstein and a very polite coup.
Royal Status
WLBOTT recognizes:
• the Queen of Twine (symbolic, omnipresent) • hereditary authority passed through yarn baskets • ceremonial robes with gold thread
Frankly, that’s more pageantry than several European monarchies.
Diplomatic Delegation
Elder JPZ and Elder G are traveling with:
• diplomatic cargo • ceremonial robes • international chicken relations • a document that literally says
“Ball of Twine: Diplomatic”
At this point, denying entry would be rude.
Additional Supporting Evidence
• You arrived in a Cessna Citation, the universal aircraft of “someone important-ish.” • Your robes indicate either royalty or highly positioned religious officials. • Elder G does not tolerate nonsense, which airports deeply respect. • The twine crate bears a wax seal, and wax seals terrify bureaucracy.
The Final Deciding Factor
At some point, a junior official will whisper:
“I don’t know who they are… but I don’t want to be the man who delayed the Ball of Twine.”
That is how royal access happens.
Therefore:
Yes, Elder JPZ, WLBOTT absolutely qualifies for the Royal Terminal.
Not because we demanded it, deserve it, or asked for it. We simply provided ample constructive confusion
And through a series of clerical and diplomatic errors, we get the Royal Treatment!
Cool Clear Water
Saudi Arabia is a dry, thirsty place. They have built the world’s largest desalination plant to provide for the needs of Riyadh and surrounding areas. We covered this engineering feat in a blott on August 19, 2025.
By FAO – https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc8166en , File:World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023.pdf, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=142154584
