Saudi Arabia #1: Geography and the Rulers

Tomas Pueyo wrote a great post on Saudi Arabia, informative on so many fronts.

“Saudi Arabia is the biggest country in the world with no rivers! It only has wadis, ephemeral river beds that only occasionally carry water after rain.”

Sure, everyone knows about the sand and desert, but did you know:

“The sand is so sandy that there are dunes up to 250 m high!”

It is also rocky and mountainous on one side.


Did you know the mountains are so tall that it even snows there?

 

From the above pic, you’d also notice the country is next to two major sea routes – the Red Sea on the left (west) and the Persian Gulf on the top (north). The coastal areas have also been on the trade routes with the corresponding opportunities for enrichment. Which is why you find so many different countries along those coasts: 


Based on all this, you’d expect only the coastal areas to be the well-known cities of Saudi Arabia. And yes, Mecca, Medina and Jeddah lie close to the coast. But not the capital, Riyadh. In fact, Riyadh lies in the center! Why?

 

Well, in the middle too, there are mountains which can help block the rain clouds resulting in some rain and the creation of oases. This central region is called the Najd. The founders, the Al Saud family, come from the Najd. Lieing on the route from Mesopotamia to Mecca and Medina meant a pilgrimage-based source of income. That, and the fact that they were inland and thus hardly exposed to outside influences, is why the ultra-orthodox Wahabi version of Islam took such a strong hold in the Najd. Over time, the Al Saud family took control over more and more regions that eventually became Saudi Arabia:

“This is how the Al Saud/Wahhab alliance took over what would become Saudi Arabia, and that’s why the country is a hyperreligious monarchy to this day.”

But if there are so many competing tribes in the area, well, the solution for the Al Saud family was to inter-marry with them to consolidate their power.

“Today, the family has 15,000 people, of whom 2,000 are close to power.”

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