The City of Roses in Saudi Arabia Fights Climate Change

In the mountains of the Saudi West, where spring dyes the fields of rose, Taif is located, known as the city of roses. For more than 50 years, Khalafallah al Talhi, an 80-year-old farmer, carefully cares for a millenary tradition: the collection and distillation of the precious Taif roses, recognized worldwide for their exquisite fragrance. “I love roses more than my own children,” Talhi says, surrounded by their crops, where every year between …

A city perched at 1,700 meters above sea level, Taif is nicknamed the "city of roses" because of its vast fields of roses that bloom in the spring. These flowers are used to produce an essential oil very caught in luxury perfumery.

Taef, Saudi Arabia For five decades, Khalafallah al Talhi prunes the bushes and collects the flowers to extract the coveted perfume from the "city of roses", nested in the mountains of western Saudi Arabia. "I love roses more than my own children," says this 80-year-old man from his flower plantation, one of the 800 in Taif, nicknamed "the city of roses." At about 1,700 meters of altitude, Taif produces about 300 million of these iconic rose pet…