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Travel to Saudi Arabia — Unbiased reviews
and great deals from TripAdvisorSaudi Arabia
| Kingdom of Saudi Arabia National
name: Al-Mamlaka al-'Arabiya as-Sa'udiya Sovereign: King Abdullah (2005)
Current government officials
Land area: 829,995 sq mi (2,149,690 sq
km) Population (2007 est.): 27,601,038
(growth rate: 2.1%); birth rate: 29.1/1000; infant mortality rate:
12.4/1000; life expectancy: 75.9; density per sq mi: 33
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Riyadh, 3,724,100 Other large cities: Jeddah, 2,745,000;
Makkah (Mecca), 1,614,800 Monetary
unit: Riyal
Language:
Arabic
Ethnicity/race:
Arab 90%, Afro-Asian 10%
Religion:
Islam 100% Literacy rate: 79% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$564.6 billion; per capita $23,200. Real growth rate: 4.1%.
Inflation: 4.1%. Unemployment: 13% male only (local bank
estimate; some estimates range as high as 25%) (2004 est.). Arable
land: 2%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, tomatoes, melons,
dates, citrus; mutton, chickens, eggs, milk. Labor force: 6.76
million; note: more than 35% of the population in the 15–64 age
group is non-national; agriculture 12%, industry 25%, services 63%
(1999 est.). Industries: crude oil production, petroleum
refining, basic petrochemicals; ammonia, industrial gases, sodium
hydroxide (caustic soda), cement, fertilizer, plastics; metals,
commercial ship repair, commercial aircraft repair, construction.
Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, gold,
copper. Exports: $165 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): petroleum and
petroleum products 90%. Imports: $44.93 billion f.o.b. (2005
est.): machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, motor vehicles,
textiles. Major trading partners: U.S., Japan, South Korea,
China, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, UK (2004). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 3.9 million (2002 est.); mobile cellular: 2.9 million (2002
est.). Radio broadcast stations: AM 43, FM 31, shortwave 2
(1998). Radios: 6.25 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 117 (1997). Televisions: 5.1 million (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 22 (2003). Internet
users: 1.453 million (2002). Transportation: Railways: total: 1,392 km
(2002). Highways: total: 151,470 km; paved: 45,592 km; unpaved:
105,878 km (1999). Ports and harbors: Ad Dammam, Al Jubayl,
Duba, Jiddah, Jizan, Rabigh, Ra's al Khafji, Mishab, Ras Tanura,
Yanbu' al Bahr, Madinat Yanbu' al Sinaiyah. Airports: 209
(2002). International disputes: nomadic
groups on border region with Yemen resist demarcation of boundary;
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been negotiating a long-contested
maritime boundary with Iran; because the treaties have not been made
public, the exact alignment of the boundary with the UAE is still
unknown and labeled approximate.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Saudi Arabia occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula, with the Red Sea
and the Gulf of Aqaba to the west and the Persian Gulf to the east.
Neighboring countries are Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab
Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman, Yemen, and Bahrain, connected to the
Saudi mainland by a causeway. Saudi Arabia contains the world's largest
continuous sand desert, the Rub Al-Khali, or Empty Quarter. Its oil region
lies primarily in the eastern province along the Persian Gulf.
Government
Saudi Arabia was an absolute monarchy until 1992, at which time the
Saud royal family introduced the country's first constitution. The legal
system is based on the sharia (Islamic law).
History
Saudi Arabia is not only the homeland of the Arab peoples—it is
thought that the first Arabs originated on the Arabian Peninsula—but
also the homeland of Islam, the world's second-largest religion. Muhammad
founded Islam there, and it is the location of the two holy pilgrimage
cities of Mecca and Medina. The Islamic calendar begins in 622, the year
of the hegira, or Muhammad's flight from Mecca. A succession of invaders
attempted to control the peninsula, but by 1517 the Ottoman Empire
dominated, and in the middle of the 18th century, it was divided into
separate principalities. In 1745 Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab began calling
for the purification and reform of Islam, and the Wahhabi movement swept
across Arabia. By 1811, Wahhabi leaders had waged a jihad—a holy
war—against other forms of Islam on the peninsula and succeeded in
uniting much of it. By 1818, however, the Wahhabis had been driven out of
power again by the Ottomans and their Egyptian allies.
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is almost entirely the creation of King Ibn
Saud (1882–1953). A descendant of Wahhabi leaders, he seized Riyadh
in 1901 and set himself up as leader of the Arab nationalist movement. By
1906 he had established Wahhabi dominance in Nejd and conquered Hejaz in
1924–1925. The Hejaz and Nejd regions were merged to form the
kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, which was an absolute monarchy ruled by
sharia. A year later the region of Asir was incorporated into the
kingdom.
Oil was discovered in 1936, and commercial production began during
World War II. This oil-derived wealth allowed the country to provide free
health care and education while not collecting any taxes from its people.
Saudi Arabia was neutral until nearly the end of the war, but it was
permitted to be a charter member of the United Nations. The country joined
the Arab League in 1945 and took part in the 1948–1949 war against
Israel. Saudi Arabia still does not recognize the state of Israel. On Ibn
Saud's death in 1953, his eldest son, Saud, began an 11-year reign marked
by an increasing hostility toward the radical Arabism of Egypt's Gamal
Abdel Nasser. In 1964, the ailing Saud was deposed and replaced by the
prime minister, Crown Prince Faisal, who gave vocal support but no
military help to Egypt in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Faisal's assassination by a deranged kinsman in 1975 shook the Middle
East, but it failed to alter his kingdom's course. His successor was his
brother, Prince Khalid. Khalid gave influential support to Egypt during
negotiations on Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Desert. King Khalid died
of a heart attack in 1982, and he was succeeded by his half-brother,
Prince Fahd bin 'Abdulaziz, who had exercised the real power throughout
Khalid's reign. King Fahd chose his half-brother Abdullah as crown
prince.
Saudi Arabia and the smaller oil-rich Arab states on the Persian Gulf,
fearful that they might become Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's next targets
if Iran conquered Iraq, made large financial contributions to the Iraqi
war effort during the 1980s. At the same time, cheating by other members
of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), competition
from nonmember oil producers, and conservation efforts by consuming
nations combined to drive down the world price of oil. At the time Saudi
Arabia had one-third of all known oil reserves, but falling demand and
rising production outside OPEC combined to reduce its oil revenues from
$120 billion in 1980 to less than $25 billion in 1985, threatening the
country with domestic unrest and undermining its influence in the Gulf
area.
At the start of 1996, King Fahd passed authority to Crown Prince
Abdullah, after suffering an incapacitating stroke. In 1998 the country's
oil income fell by 40% because of a worldwide decline in prices, and it
entered its first recession in six years.
In 2000, Saudi Arabia, along with other OPEC nations experiencing a
recession, decided to reduce production to raise oil prices. In 2001, OPEC
cut oil production three additional times.
Saudi Arabia's relations with the U.S. were strained after the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks—15 of the 19 suicide bombers involved
were Saudis. Despite the monarchy's close ties to the West, much of the
extremely influential religious establishment has supported
anti-Americanism and Islamic militancy. In Aug. 2003, following the
U.S.-led war on Iraq in March and April 2003, the United States withdrew
its troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. had maintained troops in
the country for the past decade, a source of great controversy in the
strongly conservative Islamic country. One of the major reasons given for
the Sept. 11 attacks by Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden was the presence
of U.S. troops in the home of Islam's holiest sites, Medina and Mecca. On
May 12, 2003, suicide bombers killed 34, including 8 Americans, at housing
compounds for Westerners in Riyadh. Al-Qaeda was suspected. Saudi Arabia's
commitment to antiterrorist measures was again called into question by the
U.S. and other countries. In July, the U.S. Congress bitterly criticized
Saudi Arabia's alleged financing of terrorist organizations. While the
Saudi government arrested a sizable number of suspected terrorists, little
was done to quell Islamic militancy in the kingdom. Several attacks
against Westerners took place in 2003 and 2004.
In Feb. 2005, Saudi Arabia held its first elections ever: municipal
council elections to choose half of the new council members in Riyadh. The
other half continued to be appointed, in keeping with the previous Saudi
system. Women were not eligible to vote, and less than a third of eligible
voters registered.
In Aug. 2005, King Fahd bin 'Abdulaziz died. His half-brother Abdullah,
who had been the de facto ruler of the country for the past decade,
assumed the throne.
Saudi Arabia brokered talks between the Afghan government and Taliban
leaders in September 2008. In the talks, the first attempt to end the
protracted armed conflict, the Taliban said it is severing ties to
al-Qaeda.
See also Encyclopedia: Saudi Arabia.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Saudi Arabia
Central Department of Statistics http://www.planning.gov.sa/statistic/sindexe.htm
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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