Aquarabia has opened at Qiddiya City near Riyadh, adding a major new water theme park to Saudi Arabia’s growing entertainment and tourism sector.
Covering 250,000sq m, the attraction is Saudi Arabia’s first water theme park and the largest water park in the Middle East. It forms part of the wider Qiddiya City destination, located alongside Six Flags Qiddiya City, and supports the country’s wider push to develop large-scale entertainment, sports and cultural infrastructure.
The park includes 22 rides and experiences across eight themed zones inspired by Saudi Arabia’s wildlife and natural settings. Rather than presenting a conventional waterpark made up only of slides, Aquarabia has been developed as a story-led attraction centred on desert springs, native animals and the cultural importance of water in an arid region.
For developers, designers and operators, the project offers a significant case study in how waterparks are moving towards richer destination models, combining aquatic rides with intellectual property, architecture, live entertainment, dry attractions, hospitality and sustainability measures.
Story-Led Design Rooted In Place
Falcon’s Creative Group worked with Qiddiya Investment Company from the early concept stage, leading masterplanning and attraction design while developing the park’s experiential vision and original intellectual property.
The company also served as creative guardian through delivery, helping keep the relationship between story, built form, attractions and themed environments consistent across the site. The creative direction draws from Saudi culture and ecology rather than relying on a pre-existing entertainment property.
This is notable for the visitor experience sector because it shows how destination-scale attractions can build identity from local references. Aquarabia’s narrative framework gives the park a stronger sense of place and provides a structure for guest flow, scenic design and attraction grouping.
Rides, Surfing And Dry Attractions
WhiteWater delivered most of Aquarabia’s attraction mix, including water slides, water rides, surf systems, family attractions and custom ride vehicles.
Key rides include Junoon Drop, a Family Blaster standing over 42 metres high. WhiteWater has described it as the tallest and longest attraction of its type in the world. The ride uses seven-person rafts across uphill sections, large drops and combined Constrictor and Boomerango elements.
Other record claims include the world’s longest SlideWheel, the world’s tallest body-slide drop, and the world’s longest and tallest mat racer. Aquarabia also adds ride types often associated with theme parks, including Hyper Viper, a Shoot the Chute attraction, and Wadi Tahaddi, a Spinning Rapids Ride with six-person rotating rafts.
Surfing is another major part of the offer. WhiteWater supplied an Endless Surf lagoon for Surftopia, Saudi Arabia’s first inland surf experience, with wave settings covering entry-level users through to professional surfers.
Aquarabia also includes seven dry attractions, meaning around one-fifth of the attraction offer can be accessed without entering the water. This gives the park a broader operational model and supports mixed groups with different preferences.
Commercial And Operational Depth
The wider offer includes 23 food and beverage outlets, seven retail units and 91 climate-controlled luxury cabanas. Shows and live entertainment will support Qiddiya’s aim to position Aquarabia as a full-day destination.
Family provision includes a FusionFortress 18 play structure with 181 interactive features, 11 slides, two tipping buckets and a geyser capable of spraying water almost 30 metres. Ground-level elements support participation for children with limited mobility.
Sustainability measures include plans to recycle over 80 per cent of operational waste, while recycled water is used for irrigation and cooling.
For the attractions supply chain, Aquarabia signals continued demand in Saudi Arabia for specialist partners across themed design, ride systems, operations, hospitality, accessibility and environmental planning.
