Jeddah

Jeddah occupies a distinctive place on the western edge of the Arabian Peninsula, where the austere sweep of the Hejaz mountains meets the glittering expanse of the Red Sea. As the principal port of entry to Islam’s two holiest cities—Mecca to the east and Medina to the north—its history is inseparable from the rhythms of pilgrimage, international trade and the tides of empire. Yet beneath the surface of one of Saudi Arabia’s fastest-growing metropolises lies a rich tapestry of human endeavor: centuries-old merchant houses, bustling souks, ambitious skyscrapers and a shoreline reclaimed in recent years by far-reaching waterfront developments.

From its uncertain beginnings in late antiquity, Jeddah’s destiny shifted decisively in 647 CE, when the third caliph, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, designated it the western gateway for Muslim pilgrims setting out on the hajj to Mecca. The city’s name—“Jidda” in Arabic—is thought to derive from an expression meaning “the shore” or “the grandmother,” though its precise origin eludes historians. Regardless, its deep-water harbor soon attracted trade vessels laden with frankincense, mother-of-pearl and tortoise shell, bound for the markets of the Mediterranean world, India and beyond. Over time, Jeddah consolidated its role as the commercial heart of the Hejaz, bridging the Indian Ocean trading network with the caravans that crossed the Arabian interior.

Today, Jeddah is Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city, home to nearly 3.8 million residents as of 2022, making it the largest in the Hejaz and the ninth-largest in the Middle East. Its municipal boundaries stretch across the Red Sea coastal plain known as the Tihamah, rising gently toward the foothills of the lower Hijaz mountains. Though the city’s land area places it among the world’s hundred largest by expanse, urban development has often outpaced infrastructure, producing a mosaic of districts that range from the tightly woven alleys of the Old City—Al-Balad—to the planned grids of newer suburbs.

Jeddah’s motto, “Jeddah Ghair” (“Jeddah is different”), captures a local ethos that balances conservative social codes with a more cosmopolitan outlook than the kingdom’s interior. The city’s foreign workforce, drawn largely from South and Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Levant, alongside small Shīʿī and other minority communities, contributes to its multilingual, multiethnic fabric. Yet official life remains shaped by the principles of Shariʿah: over 1,300 mosques attend daily prayers, and public expressions of non-Muslim faith are confined to private spaces, even as tolerance extends quietly to religious observance that does not contravene public order.

Jeddah’s climate is defined by the convergence of desert heat and maritime humidity. Classified as arid (Köppen BWh), it experiences persistently warm winters—morning lows seldom dip below 15 °C, while afternoons hover near 28 °C—and brutally hot summers, with daytime temperatures frequently surging past 40 °C. The highest temperature on record—52.0 °C—was logged on 22 June 2010, marking Saudi Arabia’s national peak; the lowest, 9.8 °C, occurred on 10 February 1993. Rainfall is scant and erratic, confined largely to brief thunderstorms in November and December; a single storm in December 2008 unleashed some 80 mm of rain, flooding streets and overwhelming drainage systems. Dust storms, driven from the Arabian interior or from Saharan Africa, punctuate the dry season, sometimes merging with thunderstorms to cloak the city in swirling ochre haze.

At the heart of Jeddah’s economy lies the Jeddah Islamic Port, the kingdom’s chief maritime gateway. Ranking thirty-sixth globally in cargo volume, and second only to Dubai’s Jebel Ali in the Middle East, it handled over 4 million TEUs as recently as 2017–18, linking Saudi Arabia to markets from East Asia to Europe. Complementing the port, King Abdulaziz International Airport dominates the city’s northern suburbs. Its four terminals include the iconic tent-roofed Hajj Terminal, designed to process millions of pilgrims during the hajj, as well as dedicated domestic, international and VIP facilities. Beyond the port and airport, Jeddah’s industrial district—fourth in scale nationally—hosts petrochemical plants, steel mills and light manufacturing.

Highways and rail have become ever more important. Highway 40, starting in Jeddah, threads east through Mecca and on to Riyadh and Dammam, while the Haramain High Speed Railway, inaugurated in 2018, links Jeddah with those two holy cities by rail. Though a planned urban metro has repeatedly faced delays, planners envisage a network that would weave beneath crowded streets and provide rapid transit within the city itself.

Jeddah’s position at the crossroads of pilgrimage and trade has bequeathed it a culinary tradition unlike those found elsewhere in Saudi Arabia. Fish and seafood dominate, thanks to nearby coral reefs and deep sea fishing grounds. Saleeg, a soupy rice dish simmered in broth, epitomizes local taste; so too does mabshūr, in which rice cooks in seasoned stock. Yet restaurants brim with imported flavors: hareira soup and foul from the Maghreb, mandi and madfun from Yemen, mantu dumplings from Central Asia, biryani from South Asia, and burek traced to the Ottoman trade routes. Among fast-food outlets, the homegrown Al Baik chain stands out: founded in Jeddah in 1974, its broasted chicken and seafood platters now draw queues in cities across Saudi Arabia and beyond.

Museums, though modest in number, reflect the city’s layered past. The Jeddah Regional Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography showcases relics that stretch back two millennia; Nasseef House preserves the traditions of Hejazi merchant families; and the private Abdul Raouf Khalil Museum assembles artifacts from Ottoman, African and local fishing communities. Al-Balad, with its coral stone houses and intricately carved wooden balconies, earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 2014; royal decrees have since funded restoration of some fifty historic buildings, reviving the venerable waqf houses once inhabited by traders and their families.

The city’s principal avenues serve as barometers of its growth and ambition. King Abdullah Street, tracing the waterfront westward to the eastern limits of urban sprawl, is lined with corporate offices and commercial towers; soon it will host the Jeddah Central Train Station, part of the future high-speed rail network. It also boasts the world’s second-tallest flagpole, a slender mast of steel reaching 170 meters, from which the national flag flutters above seaside promenades. Tahliyah Street—officially Prince Mohammad bin Abdul Aziz Road—commands Jeddah’s fashion and retail sectors, its sidewalks crowded with luxury boutiques and cafes. Madinah Road, linking the airport to the southern districts, remains perennially clogged but vital for logistics and commuting.

Yet it is in Jeddah’s skyline that aspirations loom largest. The soaring NCB Tower and the Islamic Development Bank’s headquarters testify to the city’s financial prominence. The aborted but still-rising Jeddah Tower (formerly Kingdom Tower), intended to pierce the clouds at over one kilometer, embodies Saudi Arabia’s drive for global distinction; halted in 2018 at roughly one-third of its planned height, it resumed work in September 2023 and now aims for completion by 2029. Nearby, the King Road Tower advertises on its vast LED walls, while Al Jawharah Tower marks the residential high-rise boom.

Jeddah’s attraction as a resort destination has grown markedly in recent years. The Red Sea Corniche, extended and refurbished as the Jeddah Waterfront, reopened in 2017 with beaches, marinas, parks and public art installations. This thirty-square-kilometer development won a local innovation award and provides urban dwellers with seaside escapes, playgrounds, dancing fountains and uninterrupted Wi-Fi. Beyond the city’s limits lie gated coastal compounds—off-limits to the mutawwaʿīn, the religious police—where more relaxed social conventions prevail among affluent Jeddawis. Luxury resorts such as Al-Nawras Mövenpick, Crystal Resort and Sheraton Abhur guard offshore coral reefs and host visitors seeking palm-fringed privacy.

Throughout its existence, Jeddah’s identity has been bound to the hajj. For fourteen centuries, ships and caravans conveyed the faithful from every continent to Mecca, with Jeddah as the principal staging ground. Today, air travel has superseded sea voyages, yet the city retains its role as a melting pot of languages, cuisines and customs. Its consular district, headquarters to more than sixty diplomatic missions—from the United States and United Kingdom to Indonesia, Greece and Mainland China—underscores its international significance. As the administrative center of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Jeddah convenes summits of finance ministers and heads of state, reinforcing its status as a nexus of Muslim-majority nations.

Jeddah stands at a crossroads between preservation and progress. The tension between Al-Balad’s centuries-old dwellings and the glass-clad skyscrapers of Business Bay reflects a broader debate: how to reconcile cultural heritage with modern demands for infrastructure, housing and leisure. Plans for a light-rail network and expanded airport terminals seek to manage growth; initiatives to diversify the economy into science, engineering and innovation aim to reduce reliance on oil and port revenues. Despite periodic floods—such as that which engulfed King Abdullah Street in 2011—and the ever-present threat of sea-level rise, city planners envision a seafront metropolis that remains both functional and hospitable.

In the coming decade, as Jeddah completes the tallest tower ever attempted and extends rail connections to every corner of the kingdom, its character will continue to evolve. Yet the constant, whether in the heart of Al-Balad or beneath the spray of King Fahd’s Fountain—the world’s highest water jet—will be its role as a threshold: between desert and sea, past and future, the ordinary and the sacred. For pilgrims, merchants and residents alike, Jeddah remains the point at which journeys converge, livelihoods intertwine, and the manifold currents of culture, commerce and faith meet on the shores of the Red Sea.