RIYADH (Reuters) - Climb the rickety ladder through the Emir Omar bin Saud Palace courtyard in crumbling Diriyah and the image of old Saudi Arabia suddenly appears in an adobe roofscape set against dark green palms.
The caramel tones of the mud walls, the smell of dust mingling with water and the muffled clanging of hammer on stone belong not to the kingdom's impoverished past, however, but a restoration project costing at least $133 million (82.2 million pounds).
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