Riyadh

Riyadh
An HSS TWS-295 siren in Riyadh.
Type	City
Location	Riyadh
Date installed	1960s-2000s

Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia, located in the central portion of the country. Its population of 7 million is notified by a comprehensive system of outdoor warning sirens installed throughout the city. Riyadh has had sirens and other alarms such as pneumatic horns since the Gulf War era, although many of these have since been modernized in recent years with newer electronic sirens.

History

Riyadh used call-to-prayer minaret loudspeakers as sirens during emergencies. Some of these have been in place since the 1930s, and many of them still exist and continue to function today. The earliest known actual sirens to be installed in Riyadh were

24 ACA Cyclones were installed in Riyadh in 1982, according to an ACA demo tape. In January of 1991, the Saudi Arabian government placed a rush order for at least 100+ "Laser 6000" sirens from ACA according to a news article, presumably for Riyadh's system; what a "Laser 6000" is exactly is unknown, and this name was likely the result of a mistranslation. Whatever they were, Saudi Arabia refused to pay for them after they had already been installed, thrusting the already struggling ACA into bankruptcy. Pneumatic horns of an unknown make or model (some have suggested Kockum Sonics' TYFON horns) were also in place in Riyadh during the Gulf War, audible during recordings of SCUD missile attacks taking place during 1990 and 1991.

Schedule

Riyadh's siren system does not have a known testing time or date at this moment.