Diriyah[1] (Arabic: الدِرْعِيّة, ad-Dir‘īyah, approximate meaning ‘place of armor’[2]), formerly romanized as Dereyeh[3] and Dariyya,[4] is a town and governorate in Saudi Arabia.

[5] Today, the town is the seat of the Diriyah Governorate, which also includes the villages of Uyayna, Jubayla, and Al-Ammariyyah, among others—and is part of Ar Riyad Province.

Consisting almost entirely of mud-brick structures, the ruins are divided into three districts, Ghussaibah, Al-Mulaybeed, and Turaif that are set on top of hills overlooking the valley.

The Muslims captured war bounty and returned with the chief of the tribe of Banu Hanifa, called Thumamah Bin Uthal al-Hanafi.

[10] Although the location is sometimes identified with an ancient settlement mentioned by Yaqut and Al-Hamadani known as "Ghabra",[11] the history of Diriyah proper dates back to the 15th century.

Mani and his clan had come from the area of Al-Qatif in eastern Arabia, upon the invitation of Ibn Dir' (ابن درع), who was then the ruler of a group of settlements that now make up Riyadh.

Diriyah quickly swelled in size and increased in wealth, becoming the largest town in Nejd and a major city in Arabia by the standards of the time.

However, when a member of the local nobility tried to revive the Wahhabi state in Diriyah, Ibrahim ordered his troops to destroy the town even further and set whatever was left of it on fire.

In 1818 the army entered Diriyah and after a six-month siege penetrated the defences on the Turaif, totally destroyed the houses and cut down every tree in the palm groves.

In The Kingdom (first published in 1981), British author Robert Lacey observed that the Al Saud had "left the shell of their old capital behind them, an enduring reminder of the frontiers of the possible" and compared the old Diriyah to "a sand-blown Pompeii".

[20] Before turning the complete site into a modern open-air museum documentation and necessary investigations, including excavations especially in places that may need to be remodelled, are planned in three major phases.

The Saudi government undertook a large scale renovation of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's domain, turning it into a major tourist attraction.