Curated by the writer Philippe Cardinal, the inaugural exhibition of the Red Sea Museum shows a collection of pictures by the Saudi artist Moath Alofi that revives the soul of Bab al-Bunt, in the heart of Jeddah. For decades that place in al-Balad was the main gateway through the Red Sea for millions of Muslim believers travelling to Mecca.

Commissioned by the ministry of culture to photograph Bab al-Bunt before its renovation into a museum, Alofi catches not only the architectural detail of the place but the sense of mystery behind the objects he found abandoned inside it — things of the past that stand witness to hundreds of years of life.