Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Western Asia
Desert · Ancient · Opulent
Saudi Arabia (officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) is a country located in Western Asia. Its capital city is Riyadh, with other major cities including Jeddah and Mecca. With a population of approximately 35.0M, the main language spoken is Arabic. The country covers an area of 2,149,690 km². The official currency is the Saudi riyal (ر.س). Traffic drives on the right side.
Saudi Arabia levies 0% income tax and is home to Aramco, the world's most valuable company at over $2 trillion.
Riyadh serves as the political, cultural and economic heart of Saudi Arabia, positioned in Western Asia. As the seat of government and often the most populous city, it concentrates the country's main institutions, universities and cultural landmarks. Beyond the capital, major cities include Jeddah, Mecca, Medina — each a hub of regional culture, economy and history. Riyadh's transformation from a small walled oasis town into a 7-million-person metropolitan sprawl occurred almost entirely between 1950 and 2000, funded by oil revenues that produced the Kingdom Centre tower's sky bridge and a skyline assembled with unusual speed from global architectural catalogues.
With a population of approximately 35.0M, Saudi Arabia is a vibrant society with a rich mix of traditions and communities. The official language is Arabic, which reflects the country's cultural heritage and connects it with a wide international community. Internationally, Saudi Arabia is reached via the dialling code +966. Saudi hospitality centres on the ritual of Arabic coffee, qahwa — brewed with cardamom and saffron and poured from a long-spouted dallah — which a host refills continuously until the guest signals sufficiency by tilting the cup, an exchange with specific social grammar that predates oil wealth by centuries.
Saudi Arabia spans 2,149,690 km², in the Western Asia subregion of Asia. Geographically centred around 25.0°N, 45.0°E, the country offers a diverse range of landscapes shaped by its location, climate and geology. Road traffic follows the right-hand rule, in line with surrounding Asia convention.
The official currency is the Saudi riyal (ر.س), used for everyday transactions and commerce throughout the country. Saudi Arabia's economy is shaped by its geography, natural resources and trade relationships. Business and daily life operate under UTC+03:00, aligning the country with its regional neighbours.
The emblematic dish of Saudi Arabia is Kabsa. Kabsa, the national rice dish of long-grain rice cooked in a broth of lamb or chicken with black lime, cardamom, cloves and rose water, originated in the Najd region and travels with Saudi diaspora communities as the meal that collapses time and geography back to a particular grandmother's kitchen.
Football holds a special place in the heart of Saudi Arabia's national identity. Saudi Arabia's 2–1 defeat of Argentina at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar — while Lionel Messi's team was ranked third in the world — produced scenes of spontaneous street celebration across the kingdom and a government-declared national holiday the following morning.
The highest point in Saudi Arabia is Jabal Sawda, rising to 3,133 metres above sea level. The Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter, is the world's largest continuous sand desert — 650,000 square kilometres of dune fields reaching 250 metres in height — a landscape so inhospitable that it remained unsurveyed by Westerners until Wilfred Thesiger's crossings in 1946 and 1947.