Next: around 15 Mar to 28 Apr 2027
Taif rose season
In the mountains above Mecca, pink damask roses are picked at dawn and distilled into rose oil.
What happens
Taif stands high in the Hejaz mountains of Saudi Arabia, where the air is cool enough for roses. For a few weeks in spring, usually from mid March through April, farms on the terraces of Al Hada and Al Shafa harvest a pink, strongly scented damask rose. Pickers start before sunrise, while the oil is still in the petals, and the flowers go straight to copper stills. It takes many thousands of blooms to make one small vial of oil. Farms and distilleries open to visitors, and the city holds a rose festival.
The flowers
Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Background: "Taif" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- rose oil: Itineranttrader, Public domain, source
- Rose water: E4024, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Concrete (perfumery): Kurt Stüber [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, source