Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia occupies the greater part of the Arabian Peninsula, its ochre deserts and rugged mountains stretching between latitudes 16° and 33° N and longitudes 34° and 56° E. At roughly 2.15 million square kilometres, it ranks as Asia’s fifth-largest and the world’s twelfth-largest state. The kingdom borders the Red Sea to the west and the Persian Gulf to the east, abutting Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen; the Gulf of Aqaba also separates it from Egypt and Israel. Riyadh, the capital and largest metropolis, commands the broad plains of Nejd, while Jeddah, Mecca and Medina stand as hubs of commerce and faith. Though almost entirely arid, Saudi Arabia’s terrain encompasses sand seas, highland plateaus, volcanic fields and a narrow coastal plain known as the Tihāmah.

The saga of human presence in this land stretches back to some of the earliest migrations out of Africa. Pre-Islamic Arabia yielded rich archaeological finds: stone tools, rock inscriptions and traces of Bronze Age settlements. Amid that vast, sunbaked landscape arose several distinct cultures, each adapting to scarce water and shifting sands. Those desert dwellers forged trade routes—dromedaries laden with frankincense, myrrh and spices threaded their way across the peninsula—laying groundwork for future urban centres.

In the early seventh century, the Prophet Muḥammad transformed a regional milieu of tribal allegiances and polytheistic shrines into a single Islamic polity. From the Hijāz, Islam radiated outward: within a few decades, Arab armies carried the new faith across North Africa, into Persia, India and the Iberian Peninsula. Dynasties born in what is now Saudi Arabia—beginning with the Rashidun caliphs (632–661), through the Umayyads and Abbasids—presided over a golden age of scholarship, trade and architecture, their legacy visible in manuscripts, mosques and minarets stretching from Baghdad to Córdoba.

The modern state of Saudi Arabia arose through the efforts of ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Sa‘ūd. After seizing Riyadh in 1902, he wove together Hejaz, Najd, Al-Aḥsā and ‘Asīr by 1932, declaring the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since then, an unbroken succession of monarchs of the House of Sa‘ūd has governed as absolute rulers. The Basic Law enshrines Islam as both faith and legal foundation; Arabic serves as the official language. For much of its contemporary history, the state endorsed the austere teachings of Wahhābī-inspired Salafism, though recent decades have seen a gradual easing of religious police powers and modest social reforms.

The discovery of oil in 1938 transformed a subsistence economy into a hydrocarbon powerhouse. Saudi Arabia sits atop the world’s second-largest oil reserves and maintains a leading role within OPEC. Petroleum accounts for over half of fiscal revenues and two-thirds of exports, funding ambitious infrastructure projects, social programs and a welfare state that provides free health care and university education. Classified as a high-income economy, it ranks among the world’s top twenty by nominal GDP and among the ten largest by purchasing-power parity. Yet the state also confronts the challenge of diversifying beyond oil, fostering private-sector growth and integrating a youthful workforce.

Climatically, Saudi Arabia is dominantly desert. Summer highs in lowland plains often exceed 45 °C, occasionally peaking near 54 °C; nights may bring relief, but humidity along the coast can intensify discomfort. Winters are mild except in the north, where frost and occasional snowfall visit the mountains of Tabūk and Țurayf. Annual rainfall rarely surpasses 100 mm, though the southwest—including the Asīr range—receives monsoonal moisture from the Indian Ocean, nourishing terraced farms and juniper-forested highlands. Wadis sweep across the plateau, their alluvial soils sustaining date palms and small oases.

Biologically, the kingdom comprises five terrestrial ecoregions: from the fog-wafted shores of the Red Sea to the montane woodlands of the Hejaz and the Empty Quarter’s vast dunes. Fauna once included Arabian oryx, cheetahs and Asiatic lions; today some species survive only in protected reserves or captivity. Predators such as the leopard and striped hyena persist in mountain refuges. The Red Sea’s coral reefs host over 1 200 fish species—ten percent found nowhere else—while sharks, turtles and dolphins patrol its blue corridors.

Administratively, the country is divided into thirteen regions and 118 governorates, each led by a governor or mayor. Traditional divisions—Hejaz, Nejd, the Eastern Province, Asīr and the Northern frontier—reflect geography, tribal affiliations and historic heritage. Urbanization has surged since mid-century: today more than eighty-five percent of citizens dwell in metropolitan areas, above all Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.

Demographically, Saudi Arabia counted over 32 million people by 2022, nearly half under twenty-five years of age. Immigrants comprise some forty-two percent of the workforce, chiefly from South and Southeast Asia, Africa and neighboring Arab states. Among citizens, roughly ninety percent identify as Sunni Muslim—principally adherents of Salafism—while ten percent are Shī‘a, concentrated in the Eastern Province. Non-Muslim expatriates practice openly only in private; the law bars apostasy and proselytism, and conversion from Islam carries severe penalties.

Language unites and divides. Standard Arabic underpins education, media and government, while four major Saudi dialect groups—Najdi, Hejazi, Gulf and Southern Hejaz—prevailed in daily speech. Smaller linguistic enclaves include the Mehri tongue and Faifi dialects in the southwest. Among non-citizens, Bengali, Tagalog, Urdu and Levantine Arabic sustain diasporic communities. Sign language binds the deaf, numbering over 100 000.

Heritage lies at the heart of Saudi identity, even as modernization remakes skylines. Mecca and Medina remain the spiritual axis of Islam: annually millions undertake hajj and umrah pilgrimages to circumambulate the Kaaba or to pray at the Prophet’s Mosque. The Al-Shaibi family retains custodianship of the Kaaba’s keys, a trust said to span sixteen centuries. Beyond the Hijāz, rock art at Hail and Bir Hima records millennia of human passage. Seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites—from the sandstone tombs of Madā’in Ṣāliḥ to the mud-brick palaces of Dir‘iyah—bear witness to civilizations long vanished.

Cultural renewal has accelerated under Vision 2030, a reform blueprint launched in 2016. Billions are directed toward preserving antiquities, bolstering museums and sponsoring archaeological missions. In 2024, excavations at Khaybar unearthed al-Nataḥ, a Bronze Age settlement of some 500 dwellings, underscoring the peninsula’s deep roots in early civilization. Meanwhile, the state has opened to leisure tourism, issuing visas to residents of fifty nations and admitting holders of US, UK or Schengen visas on arrival.

Social life intertwines tradition and rule. Men wear the thawb, a white ankle-length robe, girded by the keffiyeh or ghutra and the agal that binds it; on cooler days, a camel-hair bisht may cloak the shoulders. Women don the abaya, a black outer robe that extends from neck to feet; head coverings—hijāb or niqāb—vary in form. Tribal motifs enliven embroidery along hems, metallic threads catching sunlight.

Cuisine reflects crossroads of commerce and conquest. Kabsa—rice simmered with lamb or chicken—and mandi, its fragrant sibling, exemplify national fare. Flat breads, dates and yoghurt accompany every meal; coffee, brewed strong and spiced with cardamom, carries profound hospitality rituals. Sweets derived from honey and nuts appear at festivals and gatherings, a taste of South Asian, Persian and East African influences sifted into local practice.

Modern infrastructure coexists with ancient caravan trails. Highways slice desert expanses; gleaming airports link Riyadh and Jeddah to global capitals. Yet in remote reaches, Bedouin still follow camels across the dunes, herding goats and quarrying salt from mineral flats. Solar farms bloom in sun-baked emptiness, a signal of an economy’s bid to transcend oil.

Challenges loom as well as opportunities. Reliance on foreign labor has social and economic costs. Youth unemployment, still above regional averages, spurs investment in education and technical training. Water scarcity demands large-scale desalination projects and conservation measures. Human rights groups press for broader civic participation and freedom of expression.

Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia strides toward a redefined role in the twenty-first century. Its strategic location bridges continents; its oil wealth underwrites geopolitical influence; its young population offers both dynamism and volatility. As the kingdom grapples with balancing faith and reform, tradition and innovation, its narrative unfolds in myriad registers: the echo of the call to prayer at dawn, the wind-sculpted dunes of the Rub’ al Khālī, the marble columns of Riyadh’s new museums and the timeless devotional passages of the Hajj. Each element contributes to a portrait that is neither monolith nor cliché but an evolving synthesis of history, culture and aspiration.