TAIF: “All Roses to the Nation” is the theme of the 5th Taif Rose Festival, which was opened here yesterday by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal in the presence of Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities.
The festival included an exhibition of Taif roses and their products, such as attar and rose water. Taif roses are world famous for their extraordinary and timeless fragrance. A flower carpet in the shape of a shining sun, prepared by Taif municipality, was one of the festival’s main attractions.
With a diameter of 85 meters, the huge flower carpet covered an area of 550 square meters and was made of more than 65,000 roses, one of the organizers told Arab News. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, accompanied by Prince Sultan and Taif Gov. Fahd bin Muammar, visited the show.
Mohammed Qari, executive director of Taif tourism, said the festival was held to convey the fame of Taif roses and their products across the world. He announced the formation of a cooperative society for rose farmers.
“The Tourism Development Board in Taif has received offers from three firms to establish a rose distilling company,” Qari said, adding that it would not be a profit-oriented company. The resort city of Taif is located in western Saudi Arabia, about 120 km from Jeddah and 50 km east of Makkah. Lying atop a high escarpment in the Sarawat Mountains, Taif has perfect conditions for growing rosa damascena trigintipetala, known as the Damask rose (known locally as the Taif rose), famed for its fragrance. Every year, some 2,000 farms around Taif produce well over one hundred million roses. “They bloom throughout the month of April and farmers must rise before the sun in order to pick the new blossoms before they open to prevent their precious oils from evaporating,” one expert said.