The Fact File

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Al-Mamlaka al-Arabiya as-Saudiya / KSA) or shortly called Saudi Arabia (al-Arabiya as-Saudiya) in the South Western Asia is bordered on the north by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait; on the east by the Persian Gulf, Qatar, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates; on the southeast by Oman; on the south by the Republic of Yemen; and on the west by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah.

With the presence of Makkah and Madinah, the two holy places of Muslims, Saudi Arabia is called "the land of the two holy mosques" and its king "the custodian of the two holy mosques"

The Kingdom has an area of 2,250,000 square Kilometers (868,730 square miles), which is almost two-third the size of India. The figure varies due to the undefined boundaries of some of its neighboring countries.

Geographically, Saudi Arabia is divided into four major regions - Central, Eastern, Western and Southern.

Structurally, the whole of Arabia is a vast platform of ancient rocks, once continuous with north-east Africa. In relatively recent geological time a series of great fissures opened, as a result of which a large trough, or rift valley, was formed and later occupied by the sea, to produce the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Western Saudi Arabia is dominated by the mountain chain running the entire length of the country parallel to the Red Sea, raises between 1300 to more than 3000 meters.  From this fertile crest it falls towards the west as a desert plateau to the dry interior or the Nejd containing the great sand deserts of the Empty Quarter, Great Nafud and Ad Dahna. The eastern region lies on the Arabian Gulf Cost and contains salt flats.

The Great Nafud Desert in the north and the Rub Al Khali (The Empty Quarter), one of the largest sand deserts in the world, in the south form large stretches of sand dunes lying on the limestone layers of rock. The two great deserts are connected by a belt of narrow sand dunes known as Ad Dahna, converting nearly a third of the surface area of Saudi Arabia into sand desert.

"The Iron of the West without its ideas"

The present kingdom of Saudi Arabia derives its existence from the campaigns of its founder, Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (also known as Ibn Saud), who initially captured Riyadh with his Bedouin followers in 1902. Thereafter, with the aid of the Ikhwan (literally means brotherhood, the Ikhwan was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of Ibn Saud. They were made up of

 Bedouin warriors), he recaptured the rest of Najd, defeating the Al Rashid forces at Hail in the north in 1921, and conquering the Hijaz, including Mecca and Medina in 1924. He was chosen as king of Hijaz and Najd in 1927. It was in 1932 that Abdul Aziz bin Saud proclaimed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By the discovery of oil in 1938, the lives of the kingdom's inhabitants were ultimately transformed. The King sought to make use of Western technology but at the same time strove to maintain the traditional institutions associated with Islamic and Arab life that he phrased as "the iron of the West without its ideas".

The Lyrics of National Anthem (Listen)

Hasten to glory and supremacy!
Glorify the Creator of the heavens
And raise the green, fluttering flag,
Carrying the emblem of Light!
Repeat - God is greatest!
O my country,
My country, may you always live,
The glory of all Muslims!
Long live the King,
For the flag and the country!