Margab Fort (), also known as al-Zirin Fort (), was a citadel in the eastern outskirts of the
walled town of Riyadh in present-day
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia. It is not known by whom the structure was built, but the its origins trace as far back as the 16th century. The fort functioned as a
security checkpoint for travelers passing through the town at the time of
Second Saudi State in the 19th century. It was first restored by
Turki bin Abdullah
Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...
and the tradition of
Iftar cannon was introduced during the reign of
Faisal bin Turki. It was again restored in 1936 by
King Abdulaziz ibn Saud and finally demolished in the period between 1954 and 1957 during the reign of
King Saud bin Abdulaziz when the city underwent expansion. The fort lent its name to the
Margab neighborhood in the city's
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
, where it stood.
References
Buildings and structures in Riyadh
1957 disestablishments in Saudi Arabia
Forts in Saudi Arabia
Demolished buildings and structures in Saudi Arabia
Buildings and structures demolished in 1957
Year of establishment unknown
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