ABSTRACT
Historic Jeddah, the gate way to the holy city of Makkah is a world heritage site located on the eastern shores of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. It was settled about 2500 years ago and gained prominence in the 7th century AD as it become the main seaport for pilgrims to Makkah and commerce and trade. It is characterized by distinctive architecture of buildings with internal and external sedimentary stone load bearing walls, staggered roof terraces and large decorative wooden roshans (bay windows). It personifies the architectural style of the red-sea basin that has influences from areas along the pilgrimage and trade routes. This paper discusses a traditional sustainable repair process (ta’leeq) used in historic Jeddah’s heritage buildings for repair of sedimentary stone load bearing walls suffering from structural problems such as, cracking because of the extreme weathering conditions of high temperature and humidity.
