After spending most of the last twenty years photographing people in war-torn places around the world, photographer Bobby Sager trains his gaze upon a UNESCO world heritage site in the Arabian desert to deliver a visual tour de force.

Sager traveled to Diriyah, an ancient mud city abandoned by its inhabitants several decades ago. The fragile site has been closed to visitors for over a decade. But during the final stages of a major ten-year restoration, Sager was given unlimited access to capture the soul of this magical place before it was opened to the public. 

Captivated by the erosion in Diriyah’s mud-brick walls, Sager is drawn to the “faces” he sees within the mud patterns of the town’s architecture. Sager asks us to think of these faces as our hosts and us as their guests as we explore the streets, palaces, mosques, and schools of this three-hundred-year-old city.

Desert landscapes and architectural compositions accompany details of the walls and the faces in this lushly produced, oversize volume.

Bobby Sager is an American photographer whose photography has given rise to several publications and exhibitions. Books include: The Power of the Invisible Sun, (Chronicle 2009), Beyond the Robe (Powerhouse Books, 2013), and Invisible Sun (Rizzoli 2019).