page_title: Medina
section_title: Air
hierarchical_section_title: Medina / Transport / Air
caption_attribution_description: Picture of Medina Bus at Salam Road stop in the evening
context_page_description: Medina, officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah, commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah, is one of the three holiest cities in Islam and the capital of the Medina Region of Saudi Arabia. The 2020 estimated population of the city is 1,488,782, making it the fourth-most populous city in the country. Located at the core of the Madinah Province in the western reaches of the country, the city is distributed over 589 square kilometers, 293 km². of which constitutes the city's urban area, while the rest is occupied by the Hejaz mountain range, empty valleys, agricultural spaces, older dormant volcanoes and the Nafud desert.
  The city is considered to be the second-holiest of three cities in Islamic tradition, the other two being Mecca and Jerusalem. The Masjid al-Nabawi built by Muhammad in 622 CE, is of exceptional importance in Islam and is the site of burial of the last Islamic prophet. Muslims visit his rawdhah in what is known as Ziyarat at least once in their lifetime, although this is not obligatory. The original name of the city before the advent of Islam was Yathrib and it is referred to by the same name in the Qur'an in Chapter 33, al-Ahzab.
context_section_description: Medina is served by the Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport located off Highway 340. It handles domestic flights, while it has scheduled international services to regional destinations in the Middle East. It is the fourth-busiest airport in Saudi Arabia, handling 8,144,790 passengers in 2018. The airport project was announced as the world's best by Engineering News-Record's 3rd Annual Global Best Projects Competition held on September 10, 2015. The airport also received the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certificate in the MENA region. The airport receives higher numbers of passengers during the Hajj.
caption: A government-run bus in Medina at Salam Rd. Station
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4160", "Image ImageLength": "3120", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Make": "HUAWEI", "Image Model": "FIG-LA1", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "FIG-LA1 9.1.0.171(C185E6R1P5)", "Image DateTime": "2020:02:07 16:50:46", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "282", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[24, 28, 68367/25000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[39, 36, 12793579/1000000]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "60799/100", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[13, 50, 44]", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "GPS", "GPS GPSDate": "2020:02:07", "Image GPSInfo": "8528", "Image DeviceSettingDescription": "[105, 112, 112, 0]", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "512", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "384", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "0", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8876", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "32491", "EXIF DocumentName": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1213/1000000", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:02:07 16:50:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:02:07 16:50:46", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "19/20", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "298973/10000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "227/100", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "0", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "227/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "173/50", "EXIF SubSecTime": "497443", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "497443", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "497443", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4160", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3120", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8498", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "26", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}