The traditional architecture of the Asir highlands is among the most visually distinctive in Saudi Arabia. Multi-storey stone tower houses, built from local schist layered in horizontal courses, rise three to five floors above narrow lanes. The lower floors traditionally housed livestock and storage; the upper floors were residential, with small windows and decorated parapets.
The exterior decoration — geometric patterns in white, red, and black applied by the women of each household — is the most striking feature. No two houses have identical patterns; each family's decoration reflects the aesthetic choices and skills of the women who maintain it. The practice is genuinely living rather than performed for tourists, which makes encountering it in inhabited villages particularly interesting.
Several old villages in the hills around Khamis Mushait and Abha preserve traditional architecture more completely than the cities. Rijal Alma', about 50 km northwest of Abha on the escarpment, is the best-preserved example — a mountain village whose tall stone towers have been declared a national heritage site. The village museum occupies one of the original tower houses and displays traditional costumes, tools, and household objects.