Saudi Arabia
GEOGRAPHY
The kingdom occupies 80 percent of the Arabian Peninsula. Most
of the country's boundaries with the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
Oman, and the Republic of Yemen (formerly two separate countries:
the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen; and the People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen, or South Yemen) are undefined, so the exact size
of the country remains unknown. The Saudi government estimate is
2,217,949 square kilometers. Other reputable estimates vary between
2,149,690 square kilometers and 2,240,000 square kilometers. Less
than 1 percent of the total area is suitable for cultivation, and
in the early 1990s population distribution varied greatly among
the towns of the eastern and western coastal areas, the densely
populated interior oases, and the vast, almost empty deserts.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
External Boundaries
Saudi Arabia is bounded by seven countries and three bodies of
water. To the west, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea form a coastal
border of almost 1,800 kilometers that extends south to Yemen and
follows a mountain ridge for approximately 320 kilometers to the
vicinity of Najran. This section of the border with Yemen was demarcated
in 1934 and is one of the few clearly defined borders with a neighboring
country. The Saudi border running southeast from Najran, however,
is still undetermined . The undemarcated border became an issue
in the early 1990s, when oil was discovered in the area and Saudi
Arabia objected to the commercial exploration by foreign companies
on behalf of Yemen. In the summer of 1992, representatives of Saudi
Arabia and Yemen met in Geneva to discuss settlement of the border
issue.
To the north, Saudi Arabia is bounded by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait.
The northern boundary extends almost 1,400 kilometers from the Gulf
of Aqaba on the west to Ras al Khafji on the Persian Gulf. In 1965
Saudi Arabia and Jordan agreed to boundary demarcations involving
an exchange of small areas of territory that gave Jordan some essential
additional land near Aqaba, its only port.
In 1922 Abd al Aziz ibn Abd ar Rahman Al Saud (r. 1902-53) and
British officials representing Iraqi interests signed the Treaty
of Mohammara, which established the boundary between Iraq and the
future Saudi Arabia. Later that year, the Al Uqair Convention signed
by the two parties agreed to the creation of a diamond-shaped Iraq-Saudi
Arabia Neutral Zone of approximately 7,000 square kilometers, adjacent
to the western tip of Kuwait, within which neither Iraq nor Saudi
Arabia would build permanent dwellings or installations. The agreement
was designed to safeguard water rights in the zone for beduin of
both countries. In May 1938, Iraq and Saudi Arabia signed an additional
agreement regarding the administration of the zone. Forty-three
years later, Saudi Arabia and Iraq signed an agreement that defined
the border between the two countries and provided for the division
of the neutral zone between them. The agreement effectively dissolved
the neutral zone.
The boundary between Abd al Aziz's territories of Najd and the
Eastern Province and the British protectorate of Kuwait was first
regulated by the Al Uqair Convention in 1922. In an effort to avoid
territorial disputes, another diamond-shaped Divided Zone of 5,790
square kilometers directly south of Kuwait was established. In 1938
oil was discovered in Kuwait's southern Burqan fields, and both
countries contracted with foreign oil companies to perform exploration
work in the Divided Zone. After years of discussions, Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait reached an agreement in 1965 that divided the zone geographically,
with each country administering its half of the zone. The agreement
guaranteed that the rights of both parties to the natural resources
in the whole zone would continue to be respected after each country
had annexed its half of the zone in 1966.
Saudi Arabia's eastern boundary follows the Persian Gulf from Ras
al Khafji to the peninsula of Qatar, whose border with Saudi Arabia
was determined in 1965. The Saudi border with the state of Oman,
on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, runs through
the Empty Quarter (Rub al Khali). The border demarcation was defined
by a 1990 agreement between Saudi Arabia and Oman that included
provisions for shared grazing rights and use of water resources.
The border through Al Buraymi Oasis, located near the conjunction
of the frontiers of Oman, Abu Dhabi (one of the emirates of the
UAE), and Saudi Arabia, has triggered extensive dispute among the
three states since the Treaty of Jiddah in 1927. In a 1975 agreement
with Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi accepted sovereignty over six villages
in the Al Buraymi Oasis and the sharing of the rich Zararah oil
field. In return, Saudi Arabia obtained an outlet to the Persian
Gulf through Abu Dhabi.
Saudi Arabia's maritime claims include a twelve-nautical-mile territorial
limit along its coasts. The Saudis also claim many small islands
as well as some seabeds and subsoils beyond the twelve-nautical-mile
limit.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
Topography and Natural Regions
The Arabian Peninsula is an ancient massif composed of stable crystalline
rock whose geologic structure developed concurrently with the Alps.
Geologic movements caused the entire mass to tilt eastward and the
western and southern edges to tilt upward. In the valley created
by the fault, called the Great Rift, the Red Sea was formed. The
Great Rift runs from the Mediterranean along both sides of the Red
Sea south through Ethiopia and the lake country of East Africa,
gradually disappearing in the area of Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Scientists analyzing photographs taken by United States astronauts
on the joint United States-Soviet space mission in July 1975 detected
a vast fan-shaped complex of cracks and fault lines extending north
and east from the Golan Heights. These fault lines are believed
to be the northern and final portion of the Great Rift and are presumed
to be the result of the slow rotation of the Arabian Peninsula counterclockwise
in a way that will, in approximately 10 million years, close off
the Persian Gulf and make it a lake.
On the peninsula, the eastern line of the Great Rift fault is visible
in the steep and, in places, high escarpment that parallels the
Red Sea between the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Aden. The eastern
slope of this escarpment is relatively gentle, dropping to the exposed
shield of the ancient landmass that existed before the faulting
occurred. A second lower escarpment, the Jabal Tuwayq, runs north
to south through the area of Riyadh.
The northern half of the region of the Red Sea escarpment is known
as the Hijaz and the more rugged southern half as Asir. In the south,
a coastal plain, the Tihamah, rises gradually from the sea to the
mountains. Asir extends southward to the borders of mountainous
Yemen. The central plateau, Najd, extends east to the Jabal Tuwayq
and slightly beyond. A long, narrow strip of desert known as Ad
Dahna separates Najd from eastern Arabia, which slopes eastward
to the sandy coast along the Persian Gulf. North of Najd a larger
desert, An Nafud, isolates the heart of the peninsula from the steppes
of northern Arabia. South of Najd lies one of the largest sand deserts
in the world, the Rub al Khali .
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
The Hijaz and Asir
The western coastal escarpment can be considered two mountain ranges
separated by a gap in the vicinity of Mecca. The northern range
in the Hijaz seldom exceeds 2,100 meters, and the elevation gradually
decreases toward the south to about 600 meters around Mecca. The
rugged mountain wall drops abruptly to the sea with only a few intermittent
coastal plains. There are virtually no natural harbors along the
Red Sea. The western slopes have been stripped of soil by the erosion
of infrequent but turbulent rainfalls that have fertilized the plains
to the west. The eastern slopes are less steep and are marked by
dry river beds (wadis) that trace the courses of ancient rivers
and continue to lead the rare rainfalls down to the plains. Scattered
oases, drawing water from springs and wells in the vicinity of the
wadis, permit some settled agriculture. Of these oases, the largest
and most important is Medina.
South of Mecca, the mountains exceed 2,400 meters in several places
with some peaks topping 3,000 meters. The rugged western face of
the escarpment drops steeply to the coastal plain, the Tihamah lowlands,
whose width averages only sixty-five kilometers. Along the seacoast
is a salty tidal plain of limited agricultural value, backed by
potentially rich alluvial plains. The relatively well-watered and
fertile upper slopes and the mountains behind are extensively terraced
to allow maximum land use.
The eastern slope of the mountain range in Asir is gentle, melding
into a plateau region that drops gradually into the Rub al Khali.
Although rainfall is infrequent in this area, a number of fertile
wadis, of which the most important are the Wadi Bishah and the Wadi
Tathlith, make oasis agriculture possible on a relatively large
scale. A number of extensive lava beds (harrat) scar the
surfaces of the plateaus east of the mountain ranges in the Hijaz
and Asir and give evidence of fairly recent volcanic activity. The
largest of these beds is Khaybar, north of Medina.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
Najd
East of the Hijaz and Asir lies the great plateau area of Najd.
This region is mainly rocky plateau interspersed by small, sandy
deserts and isolated mountain clumps. The best known of the mountain
groups is the Jabal Shammar, northwest of Riyadh and just south
of the An Nafud. This area is the home of the pastoral Shammar tribes,
which under the leadership of the Al Rashid were the most implacable
foes of the Al Saud in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Their capital was the large oasis of Hail, now a flourishing urban
center.
Across the peninsula as a whole, the plateau slopes toward the
east from an elevation of 1,360 meters in the west to 750 meters
at its easternmost limit. A number of wadis cross the region in
an eastward direction from the Red Sea escarpment toward the Persian
Gulf. There is little pattern to these remains of ancient riverbeds;
the most important of them are Wadi ar Rummah, Wadi as Surr, and
Wadi ad Dawasir.
The heart of Najd is the area of the Jabal Tuwayq, an arc-shaped
ridge with a steep west face that rises between 100 and 250 meters
above the plateau. Many oases exist in this area, the most important
of which are Buraydah, Unayzah, Riyadh, and Al Kharj. Outside the
oasis areas, Najd is sparsely populated. Large salt marshes (sabkah)
are scattered throughout the area.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
Northern Arabia
The area north of the An Nafud is geographically part of the Syrian
Desert. It is an upland plateau scored by numerous wadis, most tending
northeastward toward Iraq. This area, known as Badiyat ash Sham,
and covered with grass and scrub vegetation, is extensively used
for pasture by nomadic and seminomadic herders. The most significant
feature of the area is the Wadi as Sirhan, a large basin as much
as 300 meters below the surrounding plateau, which is the vestige
of an ancient inland sea. For thousands of years, some of the heavily
traveled caravan routes between the Mediterranean and the central
and southern peninsula have passed through the Wadi as Sirhan. The
most important oases in the area are Al Jawf and Sakakah, just north
of the An Nafud.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
Eastern Arabia
East of the Ad Dahna lies the rocky As Summan Plateau, about 120
kilometers wide and dropping in elevation from about 400 meters
in the west to about 240 meters in the east. The area is generally
barren, with a highly eroded surface of ancient river gorges and
isolated buttes.
Farther east the terrain changes abruptly to the flat lowlands
of the coastal plain. This area, about sixty kilometers wide, is
generally featureless and covered with gravel or sand. In the north
is the Ad Dibdibah graveled plain and in the south the Al Jafurah
sand desert, which reaches the gulf near Dhahran and merges with
the Rub al Khali at its southern end. The coast itself is extremely
irregular, merging sandy plains, marshes, and salt flats almost
imperceptibly with the sea. As a result, the land surface is unstable;
in places water rises almost to the surface, and the sea is shallow,
with shoals and reefs extending far offshore. Only the construction
of long moles at Ras Tanura has opened the Saudi coast on the gulf
to seagoing tankers.
Eastern Arabia is sometimes called Al Ahsa, or Al Hasa after the
great oasis, one of the more fertile areas of the country. Al Ahsa,
the largest oasis in the country, actually comprises two neighboring
oases, including the town of Al Hufuf.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
The Great Deserts
Three great deserts isolate Najd from north, east, and south as
the Red Sea escarpment does from the west. In the north, the An
Nafud--sometimes called the Great Nafud because An Nafud is the
term for desert--covers about 55,000 square kilometers at an elevation
of about 1,000 meters. Longitudinal dunes--scores of kilometers
in length and as much as ninety meters high, and separated by valleys
as much as sixteen kilometers wide--characterize the An Nafud. Iron
oxide gives the sand a red tint, particularly when the sun is low.
Within the area are several watering places, and winter rains bring
up short-lived but succulent grasses that permit nomadic herding
during the winter and spring.
Stretching more than 125 kilometers south from the An Nafud in
a narrow arc is the Ad Dahna, a narrow band of sand mountains also
called the river of sand. Like the An Nafud, its sand tends to be
reddish, particularly in the north, where it shares with the An
Nafud the longitudinal structure of sand dunes. The Ad Dahna also
furnishes the beduin with winter and spring pasture, although water
is scarcer than in the An Nafud.
The southern portion of the Ad Dahna curves westward following
the arc of the Jabal Tuwayq. At its southern end, it merges with
the Rub al Khali, one of the truly forbidding sand deserts in the
world and, until the 1950s, one of the least explored. The topography
of this huge area, covering more than 550,000 square kilometers,
is varied. In the west, the elevation is about 600 meters, and the
sand is fine and soft; in the east, the elevation drops to about
180 meters, and much of the surface is covered by relatively stable
sand sheets and salt flats. In places, particularly in the east,
longitudinal sand dunes prevail; elsewhere sand mountains as much
as 300 meters in height form complex patterns. Most of the area
is totally waterless and uninhabited except for a few wandering
beduin tribes.
Data as of December 1992
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