Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia (officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) is an Asian country and the largest country of the Middle East. It is bordered by Jordan and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. The Persian Gulf lies to the northeast and the Red Sea to its west. It has an estimated population of 28 million, and its size is approximately 2,149,690 square kilometres (830,000 sq mi).
The Kingdom is sometimes called “The Land of the Two Holy Mosques” in reference to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam. The two mosques are Masjid al-Haram and Masjid Al-Nabawi. The current Kingdom was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, whose efforts began in 1902 when he captured the Al-Saud’s ancestral home of Riyadh, and culminated in 1932 with the proclamation and recognition of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, though its national origins go back as far as 1744 with the establishment of the First Saudi State.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading petroleum exporter. Petroleum exports fuel the Saudi economy.[6] Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports and nearly 75 percent of government revenues, facilitating the creation of a welfare state,[7][8] which the government has found difficult to fund during periods of low oil prices. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly expressed concern about the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
[Jeddah]
[Riyadh]
Saudi Arabia
country name:
Saudi Arabia
capital:
Riyadh
area:
1,960,582.0 km²
population:
28,161,000
currency:
Rial (SAR)
languages:
Arabic
neighbours:
Qatar, Oman, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait
