JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia: The United Nations will step in to help save the historic old city of Jeddah whose unique Red Sea architecture is in danger of disappearing, hopes Saudi Arabia.

The ancient city in Saudi Arabia is in line to be included this year on the UN's World Heritage List, which so far includes 830 sites including eight in Yemen and Oman, says Sami Nawwar, who is leading the effort to preserve Jeddah's past.

Head of tourism and culture at Jeddah municipality, Nawwar hopes to succeed finally in internationalizing a battle begun over 20 years ago to instill respect for history and culture in a rapidly modernizing society with little interest in such things.

Most of Saudi Arabia has been rebuilt entirely on the back of sudden oil wealth that filled state coffers in the 1970s. In the face of that flood, ancient Arabian cities such as Jeddah, holy cities of Makkah and Medina have lost much of their unique heritage.

In the holy cities of Makkah and Medina, holy shrines of Prophet (peace be upon him and his pure progeny)’s wives (may Allah be pleased with them), daughter Fatemah Az-Zahraa (peace be upon her), his grandsons – Al-Imam Al-Hasan, Al-Imam As-Sajjad, Al-Imam Al-Baqer and Al-Imam As-Sadeq (peace be upon them – as well as his aunts and uncles situated in the cemeteries of Al-Baqee and Al-Moalla were bulldozed. Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his pure progeny)’s house and many other belongings were demolished.

In Jeddah's old city, buildings still lie in narrow alleys running north-south and east-west to utilize sea winds and designed to create shadows that lessen the effects of the intense summer heat and humidity.

They are constructed with coral-stone slabs and blue wooden lattice windows called roshan, which give a unique flavor to architecture in historical towns in Egypt, Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea littoral.

"It's unique architecture ... and it doesn't belong to Saudi Arabia only but the whole world," Nawwar said.

Now many of the buildings are abandoned and in a state of disrepair. New regulations say they cannot be demolished, extra storeys cannot be added beyond the maximum six, and banks can offer owners loans to restore them.