29 min.
INSIDE SAUDI ARABIA’S WILD FOOTBALL EXPERIMENT
CONSIDER, BEFORE WE BEGIN, THAT NOT LONG AGO, THE GRASSY PITCH OF RIYADH’S AL-AWWAL PARK WAS DESERT, AND BEFORE THAT, IT WAS UNDER WATER. AROUND 250 MILLION YEARS AGO – GIVE OR TAKE – MUCH OF WHAT WE CALL THE ARABIAN PENINSULA WAS SUBMERGED BENEATH AN ANCIENT SEA THAT TEEMED WITH LIFE: ALGAE, DIATOMS, AND SUNDRY OTHER PREHISTORIC CRITTERS IN THEIR TRILLIONS. WHEN THESE CREATURES DIED, THEIR BODIES LITTERED THE OCEAN FLOOR AND BECAME TRAPPED. BEDROCK ACCRETED. TECTONIC PLATES DRIFTED, SMASHED TOGETHER. AND, UNDER PRESSURE AND HEAT AND TIME, THOSE ORGANISMS TRANSFORMED INTO THE SUBSTANCE WE NOW KNOW AS CRUDE OIL.
WHOLE ERAS PASS. The dinosaurs come and go. Continents break up, sea levels fall, and a new landmass rises from the waves, eventually giving way to an inhospitable desert. The…
