One of our drivers, who was Filippino, took us to see this building, which sits on a huge vacant lot near the old city of Balad. We had gone by it many times but hadn’t even noticed it. He said it used to be an old church, which was pretty amazing in the heart of Saudi Arabia. Apparently there are a lot of rumors floating around about it to that effect, but the whole story has been disputed and I think proven to be wrong http://www.arabnews.com/misconception-about-old-jeddah-edifice-cleared According to this report, it was a house built in the mid-19th century by one Mohammad Ali Abdu. Whatever it really was, it’s too bad that it has been left to deteriorate like this.