Take a taxi north from the Four Seasons Hotel in central Riyadh, and the Public Investment Fund Tower in the financial district is visible during most of the eight-mile crawl to its glass-fronted doors.
At a neck-straining 1,264ft, it is this city’s tallest building, a prestige reserved only for the most principal institutions in a capital of incalculable wealth. It is also the Saudi Arabian headquarters of Newcastle United, whose players are in town for a mid-season training camp and are guests at the opulent five-star hotel from which my journey began.
Leaving behind the taxi and a driver who is quickly told to move on by an agitated security guard, you are struck by the scale and architectural grandeur of the tower, its crystalline exterior reminiscent of a desert mirage.