page_title: Saudi Arabia
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Saudi Arabia / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Tuwaiq Escarpment, South-West of Riyadh. Location (24.521847,46.372683)+646m
context_page_description: Saudi Arabia officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country located in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km², Saudi Arabia is geographically the 5th-largest state in Asia and 2nd-largest state in the Arab world after Algeria. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba. It is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, and most of its land is dry and barren. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Arabs and Islam and sometimes called "the Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram, and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the two holiest places in Islam. Arabic is the exclusive official language in Saudi Arabia.
  Sunni Islam is the state religion. The practice of non-Islamic religions is forbidden in public but not in private.
context_section_description: Saudi Arabia is home to the largest mass of sand on earth, known as the Rub-al Khali desert (Rub-al Khali means "empty quarter"). The temperature is very hot. There are almost no rivers or lakes in the country.  There are many wadis.
  The countries of Yemen and Oman are south of Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia is west of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan. All of these countries, except Jordan and Iraq, make the Arabian Peninsula.
  Animal life includes wolves, hyenas, mongooses, baboons, hares, sand rats, and jerboas. There used to be many larger animals such as gazelles, oryx, and leopards.  By the 1950s hunting from motor vehicles made these animals almost extinct. Birds include falcons (which are caught and trained for hunting), eagles, hawks, vultures, sand grouse and bulbuls. There are several species of snakes, many of which are venomous, and numerous types of lizards. There is a wide variety of marine life in the Persian Gulf. Domesticated animals include camels, sheep, goats, donkeys, and chickens.
  Because it is mostly a desert Saudi Arabia’s plant life is mostly small herbs and shrubs that need little water. There are a few small areas of grass and trees in southern Asir. The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is widespread.
caption: The Nejd landscape: desert and the Tuwaiq Escarpment near Riyadh
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