ABDUL Raoof Khalil Museum in old Jeddah is one of the main tourist sites in the city, attracting artists and culture enthusiasts from all over the Kingdom. The imposing complex, which bears details of wood, gypsum, and stone, covers an area of about 10,000 cubic meters and comprises 12 buildings. These consist of a mosque, Al-Taiyebat charity institute, and a center for Qur'an sciences, where children are prepared for an annual Qur'an competition. Besides, there is a center for folklore science, libraries, an information center, Al-Tayiebat Open University (which operates under the theme ‘Read and teach yourself by yourself'), a talent training center and a large museum with several wings housing artifacts. The museum was built by Saudi researcher Abdul Raoof Khalil in 1987, to show the underlying unity between the arts, literature, science and crafts. After finishing this project, Khalil wrote that he had tried to show how Islam had affected not only Arab civilization, but the entire world. “The building contains sections on all the sciences such as Art, Space, Physics, Math. and even computers,” said Ameenah Shalabi, an instructor at the museum. “My father's aim in building this museum was to serve science and encourage scholarship. That is why the rent revenues from this complex are utilized for the benefit of orphans, the poor and needy,” said Khalid Abdul Raoof Khalil, Chairman of Abdul Raoof Khalil museum. “He tried to build symbolic historical buildings all over Jeddah, so he built the Household Arts Museum that is located on Cairo Street in Al-Hamra district, the National Cultural Pearl Museum in Thahban, Durrat Al-Arous, Al-Marsa,” added Khalil. The artifacts displayed in the complex include very old and rare treasures such as 300,000 books and references on different aspects of scientific knowledge. The complex also houses a 2000 square meter-long wall portraying explanatory pictures and monuments, over 500 computers with specially developed software, eighteen museum wings on the development of human civilization, minerals, jewelry and precious stones, international schools for art and cosmology. “We print beneficial books in different fields and distribute them among the students for free, and we help and support researchers as well as talented individuals who are in need of money to continue their studies,” said Khalil. __
