Saudi Arabia to build world's biggest botanical gardens

Saudi Arabia is set to lay the foundation stone for the King Abdullah International Gardens (KAIG) in Riyadh this week, with plans for the facility set to include the world’s largest botanical gardens, it was reported. Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Prince Mansour Bin Miteb will perform the ceremony on Thursday at the site, which will be 2.5m square metres in size and will be one of the largest environment projects in the world. The plans include two separate elements: a covered section and an open area. The covered facility, which will be the largest of its kind in the world, will include two giant botanical gardens which will be five times bigger than the world’s largest geodesic domes at the Eden Project in the UK. The outdoor area will include an open museum for plants, seeds bank and rocky garden, while the plans will also include research institutes, retail and hospitality outlets and a theatre, it added. The project will focus on local plant life in the Arabian Peninsula and is designed to appeal to families and tourists. Construction is already underway, with the levelling of the site and fencing works already completed.

A Tourist Guide to Quetta

Quetta is a south-western city of Pakistan, situated at an elevation of 5,500 ft (1677m). Quetta has a dry climate with no factory chimneys to pollute its fresh and invigorating mountain air. Winter sets in by November and lasts till end February. Snowfall is light, though it is not unusual to have one as late as March.

Getting There:
Quetta has the fourth largest airport in Pakistan. Visitor can come to quetta by air via Lahore, Karachi or Islamabad. Domestic flights are available on daily basis. PIA also runs direct flights from Dubai to Quetta.
Quetta is also connected to other majors cities of Pakistan by road and railways.

Shopping:
Some prominent bazaars of Quetta are located on the roads Shahrah-e-Iqbal (the Kandahari Bazaar) and Shahrah-e-Liaquat (the Liaquat and Suraj Gang Bazaar, Alamdar road (little Tokyo). Here, tourists can find colourful handicrafts, particularly Pashtun embroidery which is admired all over the world. The Pashtun workers are prominently expert in making fine  carpets, with their pleasing and intricate designs, fur coats, jackets, waist-coats, sandals and other creations of traditional Pashtun skills. local handicrafts, specially green marble products, mirror work and embroidered jackets, shirts, and hand bags, pillow covers, bed sheets, dry fruits, etc. Apart from Pashtuns, a large numbers of Punjabis and Urdu speakers also live in Quetta.


Attractions:
About 50 km, from Quetta is the valley of Pishin, which is surrounded by thousands of acres of vineyards and orchards, made by boring holes into rocks to bring to the surface the deep water.

Hanna Lake nestles in the hills ten kilometres (six miles) east of Quetta, a startling turquoise pool within bare brown surroundings. There is a lakeside restaurant with picnic tables shaded by pine trees.