-laiba Class

5

Location: The Middle East, bordering Iraq 814 km, Jordan 744 km, Kuwait 222 km, Oman 676 km, Qatar 60 km, UAE 457 km, Yemen 1,458 km

Capital: Riyadh

Climate: harsh, dry desert with great temperature extremes

Population: 25,795,938 including 5,576,076 non-nationals.

Ethnic Make-up: Arab 90%, Afro-Asian 10%

Religions: Muslim 100%

Government: monarchy

The green of the flag represents Islam and the sword stands for the House of Saud, the founding dynasty of the country, or the military strength and prowess of Saudi Arabia.

The flag is manufactured with identical obverse and reverse sides, to ensure the shahada reads correctly, from right to left, from either side. The sword points to the left on both sides, in the direction of the script. The flag is sinister hoisted, meaning that it is hoisted to the left of the flagpole.

Makah, is a city in the Hejaz and the capital of Makkah Province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located 70km in land from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of 277 m above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was 2 million, although visitors more than triple this number every year during Hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al Hijjah.

As the birthplace of Muhammad and a site of the revelation of the Quran, Mecca is regarded as the holiest city in the religion of Islam.

Medina on Saudi maps and in modern Islamic literature generally, is a modern city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of Al Medina Province. An alternative name is Madinat Al-Nabi ("The City of the Prophet," i.e. Muhammad). The Arabic word medina simply means "city." Before the advent of Islam, the city was known as Yathrib but was personally renamed by Muhammad.

King Abdul-Aziz (also known as Ibn Saud) began conquering today's Saudi Arabia in 1902, by restoring his family as emirs of Riyadh. He then proceeded to conquer first the Nejd (1922) and then the Hejaz (1925). He progressed from Sultan of Nejd, to King of Hejaz and Nejd, and finally to Abdullah, like Fahd, was one of the many sons of Ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. (Abdullah's mother was Fahda bint Asi Al Shuraim, the eighth of Ibn Saud's 16 wives.) Abdullah held important political posts throughout most of his adult life. In 1961 as a young man, he became mayor of Mecca, his first public office King of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

Arabic is the official language of Saudi Arabia, but English is widely spoken. It is used in business and is a compulsory second language in schools. Among the non-Saudi population, many people speak Urdu, the official language of Pakistan, and other Asian languages such as Farsi and Turkish.

Arabic is spoken by almost 200 million people in more than 22 countries. It is the language of the Quran, the Holy Book of Islam, and of Arab poetry and literature. While spoken Arabic varies from country to country, classical Arabic has remained unchanged for centuries. In Saudi, there are differences between the dialects spoken in urban areas and those spoken in rural areas.

Islam

Islam is practiced by all Saudis and governs their personal, political, economic and legal lives. Islam was born in Saudi Arabia and thus is visited by millions of Muslims every year. The Prophet Muhammad is seen as the last of God's emissaries (following in the foot steps of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, etc) to bring revelation to mankind. He was distinguished with bringing a message for the whole of mankind, rather than just to a certain peoples. As Moses brought the Torah and Jesus the Bible, Muhammad brought the last book, the Quran. The Quran and the actions of the Prophet (the Sunni) are used as the basis for all guidance in the religion.

Men's dress Women's dress

Roads in Saudi Arabia vary from eight lined roads to small two lined roads in rural areas. The city highways and other major highways are well maintained, specially the roads in the capital Riyadh. The roads have been constructed to resist the consistently high temperatures and do not reflect the strong sunshine. The outer city highways such as the one linking from coast to coast are not as great as the inner-city highways but the government is now working on rebuilding those roads.