Facing the Red Sea along Jeddah's New Corniche, a cream-coloured block of ten storeys draws its decorative language not from contemporary hospitality design but from the classical Hejazi palace tradition — pointed arches, carved plasterwork cornices, and a stone facade detailed with the restrained grandeur of Saudi royal architecture. Waldorf Astoria Jeddah Qasr Al Sharq, which translates as Palace of the East, opened in 2009 as part of a broader ambition to establish the Corniche as a destination in its own right, its 222 rooms and suites positioned to face both the waterfront and the city skyline. The interiors abandon any instinct toward restraint. Public rooms are arranged around soaring Moorish arches trimmed in gilded stucco, with cream marble floors inlaid in geometric borders and crystal chandeliers of considerable scale suspended from coffered ceilings painted in gold leaf. Guest suites sustain this register throughout — hand-knotted carpets in deep crimson and cobalt with scrolling arabesque motifs, gold-leafed television armoires, silk damask wall panels, and chaise longues finished in gilt framing. The indoor pool hall offers a contrasting moment of architectural calm: a barrel-vaulted glass roof floods the space with daylight while abstract blue mosaic murals sweep across the barrel vault's flanking panels, their fluid forms echoing the Red Sea just beyond the palm-lined beach. The effect throughout is of a property that treats Hejazi decorative heritage as a living vocabulary rather than a period reference.

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