Discover Saudi Arabia

Introduction

Saudi Arabia is the largest country of the Middle East.

Geography

Most of the Arabian Peninsula: about two million square kilometres of desert and mountain, with the Red Sea to the west and the Gulf to the east.

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History

Caravan kingdoms and the Nabataeans, the rise of Islam in the seventh century, the Saudi state founded at Diriyah, unification in 1932, and oil from 1938.

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Culture

Bedouin poetry and falconry, coffee and dates as ceremony, mud-brick and coral-stone architecture, and Islam at the centre of daily life.

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Climate Patterns

Desert almost everywhere: extreme summer heat, mild winters, negligible rain, and one green mountain corner in the south-west.

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See Saudi Arabia through traveler photos →

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