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General Information

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. It is in southwest Asia, at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa; extending from the Red Sea in the west to the Arabian Gulf in the east; bordered on the north by Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait, on the south, by Yemen and Oman, and on the east by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.

Demographics

Saudi Arabia's population as if 2005 was estimated to be about 26.4 million, including about 5.6 million foreign residents. Due to rapid economic and urban growth, more than 95% of the population now is settled. The birth rate is 29.56 births per 1,000 people. The death rate is only 2.62 deaths per 1,000 people. Some cities and oases have densities of more than 1,000 people per square kilometer (2,600/sq mi).

Capital Riyadh

The name Riyadh is derived from the Arabic word meaning a place of gardens and trees ('rawdah'). Today the city extends for some 600 square miles (1600 square kilometers) and has a population of more than 4.7 million. Riyadh is Saudi Arabia's educational, administrative, and financial center. Its architecture formerly represented the classic Arabic style, but in the oil boom of recent decades many buildings were torn down and replaced by large modern structures.

Time

Greenwich mean time plus three ( GMT+3) Eastern Standard time plus eight( seven during daylight Saving Time).

The Holy City of Madinah

Madinah, which lies 447 kilometers north of the Holy City of Makkah, is the second holiest city in Islam. It was to Madinah that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his followers, faced by the hostility and persecution of the Makkhan merchants, departed in 622 AD - and, when the citizens of Madinah asked the Prophet to live amongst them and to arbitrate in their affairs (an invitation taken to mean their rejection of polytheism and submission to the will of the one God, Allah), it was in Madinah that the Islamic era began.

Madinah is then the city of the Prophet. As the place in which the Holy Qur'an was compiled and from which the Prophet's companions administered the affairs of the Muslim community, it was the seat of the first Islamic state. From Madinah, armies, spreading the word of the Prophet, were dispatched to Egypt, Persia and Syria.

Madinah is also the place in which the Prophet, peace be upon him, was buried.