The real Saudi Arabia It is the largest country in the Middle East, yet there is a long way to go to raise
awareness of what Saudi Arabia is really like. Now, the government is inviting the world to come and meet its people and discover a country of contrasts
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came into being in 1932 when Abdulaziz bin Saud renamed the ‘Land of the Two Holy Mosques’ as a new country with himself as the monarch. Thirty years before, the new king had recaptured the Al-Saud ancestral home of Riyadh, which became the first battle in a campaign to unify the Arabian Peninsula, ultimately leading to the creation of the modern state that the world recognises today. During those first few decades, Saudi
Arabia was a poor nation relying on simple agriculture and revenues from pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. All that changed dramatically within 10 years of the new king’s procla- mation when, in 1941, oil was discovered along the coast of the Arabian Gulf. Oil transformed the country, bringing
economic prosperity that few of its people could have imagined and changing their lives forever. By the 1960s, many former nomadic people had begun to settle in new cities where they were protected from the harsh summers and could enjoy the prospects, economic success and security ushered in by oil revenues.
Today, Saudi Arabia is a vast and hugely
wealthy state, stretching from the Red Sea in the west to the Arabian Gulf in the east, making it the biggest of the seven countries on the Arabian Peninsula. The country is bordered by Jordan and Iraq in the north, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE in the east, Oman in the southeast and Yemen in the south.
INVITING THE WORLD TO VISIT On August 1, 2005, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ascended the throne and since then he has led the way in opening the kingdom up to foreign business invest- ment. He has been instrumental in helping the country make the most of its oil wealth and was also the brains behind the establishment of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) in 2000. SCTA is a key part of the kingdom’s devel-
opment process, especially as the country opens itself up to the world and embarks on a progressive 20-year plan to establish a thriving travel and tourism industry. The
1 Kingdom Tower, Jeddah 2 Al Baha
organisation identifies four types of visitor: the first are the religious pilgrims who visit the country specifically to see the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. The second group is made up of domestic tour- ists as the country encourages citizens to spend their holidays in their homeland. In addition to this are two smaller groups
– foreign holidaymakers, which remain a very small proportion and the growing busi- ness tourism sector. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, business travel
GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY
Te Arabian Desert dominates much of the kingdom though it is really a series of deserts broken up by semi-desert and scrubland. Although the country meets Oman and the UAE, there are no clear borders in what is known as Rub’ al Khali – the largest stretch of sand desert in the world known as the Empty Quarter, as it is one of the most impenetrable areas on the planet. It’s a single desert covering 647,000 square kilometres, which remained unexplored until the 1950s and, to this day, remains largely unchanged. Now, it is a popular location for desert expeditions.
Elsewhere the country’s terrain and geography is varied. In the west there are rocky mountain ranges, especially towards the Red Sea. As you move south to the Asir region, there are moun- tains that rise to 3,000 metres, the highest of which is Mount Sawda.
North and running parallel with Asir, there is a narrow coastal plain known as the Tihamah, an imposing escarpment littered with dunes broken up by the occasional oasis. Evidence has been found here of a civilisation dating back 4,000 years.
Rainfall in Saudi Arabia is very low. Often it comes only one or two days a year, but the Asir region differs considerably receiving around 30 centimetres of rain during the Indian Ocean monsoon season.
2
Overall, Saudi Arabia has a desert climate with high daytime temperatures and a sharp temperature drop at night. Average summer temperatures are around 45°C, but can reach the mid-50s, while in the spring and autumn temperatures tend to hover around 29°C, dropping to around 10°C at night, although in the desert it can fall to freezing.
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AHMAD SULIMAN
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