The Saudi Arabia Portal – بوابة المملكة العربية السعودية
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Saudi Arabia , officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA ), is a country in West Asia and the Middle East . It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about 2150 000 km2 (830000 sq mi), making it the fifth-largest country in Asia and the largest in the Middle East. It is bordered by the Red Sea to the west; Jordan , Iraq , and Kuwait to the north; the Persian Gulf , Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east; Oman to the southeast; and Yemen to the south. Bahrain is an island country off its east coast. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northwest separates Saudi Arabia from Egypt and Israel . Saudi Arabia is the only country with a coastline along both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert , lowland, steppe, and mountains . The capital and largest city is Riyadh ; the kingdom also hosts Islam's two holiest cities of Mecca and Medina .
Saudi Arabia is considered both a regional and middle power. The Saudi economy is the largest in the Middle East ; the world's nineteenth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the seventeenth largest by PPP . As a country with a very high Human Development Index , it offers a tuition-free university education , no personal income tax, and a free universal health care system . With its dependency on foreign labour , Saudi Arabia is home to the world's third-largest immigrant population . It also has one of the world's youngest populations , with approximately 50% of its population of 32.2 million being under 25 years old. In addition to being a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council , Saudi Arabia is an active and founding member of the United Nations , Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , Arab League , Arab Air Carriers' Organization and OPEC . Saudi Arabia is a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation . (Full article... )
In 2017, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri abruptly announced his resignation while he was in Saudi Arabia on 4 November 2017. Shortly thereafter, the foreign relations between both countries and allied regional neighbors became increasingly strained. On 6 November, Saudi Arabia claimed Lebanon declared war between the two states, despite leaders of Lebanon stating otherwise. On 9 November, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain , Kuwait , and the United Arab Emirates asked their citizens to leave Lebanon. The conflict is thought to be part of the larger Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict .
Lebanon's president and some Lebanese officials believe that Hariri's abrupt resignation was made under coercion by Saudis and have claimed that the Saudis had kept him hostage.
Iran ,
Hezbollah and some analysts also believe that this was to create a pretext for war against Hezbollah. On 21 November, Hariri resigned in
Beirut but he immediately suspended it, then he rescinded the resignation completely on 5 December. (
Full article... )
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Did you know (auto-generated)
... that The Twins , a 1930 story by Abd al-Quddus al-Ansari , was called the first Saudi Arabian novel?
... that the documentary film Jihad Rehab features interviews with former inmates from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp who are now in the Care Rehabilitation Center , a "jihad rehab" in Saudi Arabia?
... that the 2021 film West Side Story was banned in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, likely due to the transgender character Anybodys?
... that Saudi Arabian historian Sa'd ibn Junaydil took high school graduation exams with his students, as he had yet to obtain a high school diploma?
... that due to U.S. support for Saudi-led operations in Yemen , both Saudi Arabia and the United States may be held responsible for war crimes?
... that the bombing of Mokha was described as one of the deadliest attacks by the Saudi Arabian–led coalition against Yemen , leaving between 65 and 120 dead, including 10 children?
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This is a Good article , an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.
The McMahon–Hussein letter of 24 October 1915. George Antonius —who had been the first to publish the correspondence in full—described this letter as "by far the most important in the whole correspondence, and may perhaps be regarded as the most important international document in the history of the Arab national movement... is still invoked as the main piece of evidence on which the Arabs accuse Great Britain of having broken faith with them."
The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence is a series of letters that were exchanged during World War I in which the Government of the United Kingdom agreed to recognize Arab independence in a large region after the war in exchange for the Sharif of Mecca launching the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire . The correspondence had a significant influence on Middle Eastern history during and after the war; a dispute over Palestine continued thereafter.
The correspondence is composed of ten letters that were exchanged from July 1915 to March 1916 between
Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry McMahon ,
British High Commissioner to Egypt . Whilst there was some military value in the Arab manpower and local knowledge alongside the British Army, the primary reason for the arrangement was to counteract the
Ottoman declaration of jihad ("holy war") against the Allies, and to maintain the support of the
70 million Muslims in British India (particularly those in the
Indian Army that had been deployed in all major theatres of the wider war ). The area of Arab independence was defined to be "in the limits and boundaries proposed by the
Sherif of Mecca " with the exception of "portions of
Syria " lying to the west of "the districts of
Damascus ,
Homs ,
Hama and
Aleppo "; conflicting interpretations of this description were to cause great controversy in subsequent years. One particular dispute, which continues to the present, is the extent of the coastal exclusion. (
Full article... )
Selected picture
Image 1 A view of
Jabal Sawda , a peak located in Saudi Arabia, with an elevation of around 3,000 metres (9,843 ft).
[1]
Image 2 Nasseef House is a historical structure in
Al-Balad ,
Jeddah , Saudi Arabia. As of 2009 it is a museum and cultural center which has special exhibits and lectures given by historians.
Image 3 Sunset view from
Farasan Island , the largest island of the
Farasan Islands , in the
Red Sea . It is located some 50 km offshore from
Jizan , the far southwestern part of Saudi Arabia.
More did you know
... that Murtaja Qureiris , the youngest political prisoner in Saudi Arabia, is a member of the Shia minority who may face execution for taking part in anti-government protests when he was 10 years old?
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General images
The following are images from various Saudi Arabia-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 Sections of Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries formed a part of the Roman Empire. (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 2 Residential homes in
Yanbu (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 3 Abdulaziz (left) and Farouk checking an
Egyptian Army unit in 1946. Other people picture include princes
Fahd ,
Abdullah , and
Mishaal , as well as prince
Muhammad Abdel Moneim . (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 4 Bisht Being Sewn in
Al-Ahsa (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 5 Pakistani workers at Al Masjid Nabawi (the
Prophet's Mosque ) in
Medina (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 6 Abdulaziz (left) and Roosevelt aboard USS
Quincy during their historic 1945 meeting (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 7 Supplicating pilgrim at
Masjid Al Haram , Mecca (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 8 Abdulaziz Al Saud , founder of Saudi Arabia (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 9 The surviving insurgents of the
seizure of the Grand Mosque, 1979 under custody of Saudi authorities,
c. 1980 . (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 10 Faisal (left) and Nasser in Cairo, 1969 (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 11 King Abdullah practicing
falconry , a traditional pursuit in Saudi Arabia (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 12 The Arabian Peninsula in 1914 (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 14 The Rashidun Caliphate reached its greatest extent under Caliph
Uthman ,
c. 654 (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 15 Wedding in Saudi Arabia (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 18 Saudi woman wearing a
niqāb in Riyadh. Many women commonly wear a niqab or a burqa in Saudi Arabia. (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 19 The
tribes of Arabia at the time of the
spread of Islam (expandable map) (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 21 Red and white
keffiyeh commonly worn in the desert held with a black
agal (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 23 Saudi males dressed and prepared for
ardah , the national dance. It also includes swords, poetry, and singing. (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 24 Dammam No. 7 , the oil well where commercial volumes of oil were first discovered in Saudi Arabia on March 4, 1938. (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 25 Wall painted with Al-Qatt Al-Asiri (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 26 Soldiers in the Arab Army during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918, carrying the
Flag of the Arab Revolt and pictured in the Arabian Desert. (from
History of Saudi Arabia )
Image 27 VOX Cinemas movie theater (center) at
Riyadh Front in 2023 (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 28 A family fishing in
Jeddah (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
Image 29 A Saudi woman
riding a horse at
Souk Okaz , a yearly cultural festival in the outskirts of
Taif (from
Culture of Saudi Arabia )
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