SAUDI ARABIA

The country of Saudi Arabia is located in the southwest corner of Asia, the Kingdom is at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is surrounded by the Red Sea on the West, by Yemen and Oman on the South, the Arabian Gulf and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar on the East, and Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait on the North. Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastline stretches about 1,760 kilometers (1,100 miles) while its Arabian Gulf coastline roughly 560 kilometers (350 miles).

Note:This article will be beneficial for Pilgrims going for HAJJ or UMRAH or both.

Flag and Emblem

The flag of Saudi Arabia has a green background featuring a white inscription above a white horizontal sword (the tip of the sword points to the hoist side of the flag). The text is known as Shahadah or the Islamic statement of faith, "There is no God worthy of worship but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet." and the script is in Thuluth. The flag was officially adopted on March 15, 1973.

The Saudi Arabian Official Emblem is a date palm, representing vitality and growth, and two crossed swords, symbolizing justice and strength.                                                                                         

Capital and Major Cities

Riyadh

Located in the central province, is the capital city of Saudi Arabia. . It is also the high-tech center of modern Saudi Arabia and houses the headquarters of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Makkah

It is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammadﷺand the focal point of Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage in which almost two million Muslims from all parts of the world participate every year.

Madinah

It is the city where Prophet Muhammadﷺemigrated and lived.

Jeddah

Located along the eastern coast of the Red Sea, is the commercial capital of Saudi Arabia, and serves as an entrance to the rest of the peninsula.

Dammam

Is the capital of the Eastern Province. It houses the Emirate of the Eastern Province and also branches of many ministries, governmental agencies and departments. King Fahd International Airport is located northwest of the city. Dammam Port is the largest on the Arab Gulf.                                                                 

Currency

Saudi Riyal (SR) pegged to U.S. dollar ($1=SR3.745); bank notes, in Arabic and English, in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 riyals; coins in denominations of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 halalahs, with 100 halalahs equal to one riyal; metric system in use. One Saudi Riyal is equal to 16.2 Indian Rupees(As on 2014).              

Climate

Almost the entire Kingdom is arid, although there is rainfall in the north and along the mountain range to the west, especially in the far southwest, which receives the monsoon rains in summer. Sporadic rain can also occur elsewhere, sometimes very heavily, causing serious flooding, including in Riyadh, where the air and prevailing winds tend usually to be very dry.

Meeqat distances

The Meeqats (places for assuming Ihram) are five: Dhul Hulaifah, Al-Juhfah, Qarn-ul manaazil, Yalamlam and Dhaatu Irq. They are for those who live there and those who pass by them intending Hajj or 'Umrah. And he whose house is nearer than them to Makkah then he makes Ihram from his house, the people of Makkah making Ihram from Makkah.

Emergency telephone numbers

[3] [4]

Important Distances

The distance from Makkah to Madeenah is about 450 km. Mina, Muzdalifah and ‘Arafah are all located inside [the city of] Makkah, but whilst the first two are within the Sacred Precincts, ‘Arafah is outside. The distance between ‘Arafah, Mina and Muzdalifah, and the Sacred Precincts is a few kilometers, with the furthest being ‘Arafah, followed by Muzdalifah and then Mina. In other words, Mina is located about 7 km from the Sacred Mosque(Masjid E Haram ), Muzdalifah at about 10 km and ‘Arafaat is nearly 20 km away. As for the distance between ‘Arafaat and Muzdalifah, it is approximately 7 km.^[2]

Religion

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic kingdom in which Islam is the official religion.

Working Days

Public Sector

From Sunday to Thursday: 7:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m.

Friday & Saturday: Weekend holidays.

Private Sector

Morning: 8:00a.m to 12 p.m Afternoon: 4:30 p.m to 7:30 p.m.

Banks

8:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m.

Shopping Stores

Weekdays: 10:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m Friday:4:00 p.m to 10 p.m

Statistics Indicators

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia total population is 27,136,977 people, 18,707,576 of them Saudis, according to 2010 statistics, and the growth rate of the total population between 2004 and 2010 is 3.2%, while the population density is 14 people / sq km. The 2010 GDP reached with constant prices to 3.76%, the private sector contributed at a rate of 47.8%, while the GDP per capita at the current prices reached 60.066 SAR. Moreover, the gross enrollment rate in primary education in 2009 reached 99%, and the infant mortality rate for the same year reached 17.3 per thousand live births, while the unemployment rate among Saudis in the same year reached 10.5%.

Government Agencies Directory

• Municipalities

• Governorates

• Universities

• Other Agencies

• Diwans

• Presidencies

• Funds

• Faculties

• Corporations

• Councils

• Directorates

• Departments

• Authorities

• Ministries

Social efforts in the Kingdom

Development in Kingdom has generally been regarded as a discerning process dedicated to formulating a well-cultured and comprehensive social structure where community has stressed its identity and creativity. In this respect, Development has mainly been founded on affirmative collective partnership starting from planning and decision making, in addition executing and holding responsibilities reaching to utilization of fruits of development projects and programs. All such related programs have focused on Saudi people to be considered means of Development and its objective as well. The Saudi Government has consequently attached much interest to Cooperative Societies where charity works have been supported and urged by the Government. Collaboration between both Government and Private sectors has helped much in pushing Government Programs relating to Development plans. Additionally, the Government has focused on Care Program dedicated to the old-aged. It has also sought to eliminate illiteracy through opening a lot of schools for men and women over cities and villages so that such people can join the schools. The Kingdom has also paid keen attention to the orphans where related services have been implemented over the last 20 years to cherish those orphans with an attempt to eliminate the problem of mendicancy.

To utilize services offered for these social agencies, you can visit the portal of the following agencies as follows:

• Ministry of Social Affairs “MOSA”.

• Ministry of Social Affairs, Deputyship of Social Security.

• Ministry of Social Affairs, Directorate General for Disabled Care and Re-qualification.

• Ministry of Social Affairs, Directorate General for Orphans.

• Ministry of Social Affairs, Directorate General for Social Protection.

• Charity Committee for Orphans Care.

• Disabled Children’s Association.

• Prince Fahd Bin Salman Charity Association for Renal Failure Patients Care “KELLANA”.

• Prince Salman Center for Disability Research.

• Prince Salman Social Center.

Investment in KSA

Saudi Arabia is making great efforts to reach the diversify level in its economic base and to improve its investment environment. These serious steps had been taken for the economic reform. The Kingdom's comparative advantage is high in a number of strategic sectors in both the region and the world, it is the first in the world in terms of lower energy prices, and the investment achieves high rates of profitability for the domestic and foreign projects, with low risk. It is also the largest free economic market in the Middle East;, holding 25% of the total gross national Arab's , as well as it owns the largest reserves in the world which is estimated 25%, and provides energy for the investment projects in the lowest prices. This makes the K.S.A the perfect destination for projects that rely on energy consumption, in addition to natural resources in the mining sector, and the geographical location of the Kingdom makes it an easy access to Europe, Asia and Africa markets and its market has a high purchasing power. To take advantage of these geographic advantages, Saudi Arabia identified three strategic objectives: first, focus on the Kingdom of global capital of energy. Second, take advantage of the unique geographical location in the Middle East by focusing on transport and logistics services. Third, a focus on knowledge-based industries; such as health care and life sciences, education and information technology.

KIOSK in Government Agencies

Many of the government agencies provided self-service machines KIOSK as a modern and sophisticated equipment to provide services with higher level of efficiency and in a better and faster way, which is computer hardware built-in a special structure, containing a range of services provided by government agencies and placed in public places. These KIOSK terminals are linked to the agencies systems and enable the public to use in searching for information and e-Government transactions. The design of these devices is easy to use, and often has a responsive touch screens, printers, thumbnail, and magnetic or optical readers for different purposes. The KIOSK devices provide self-service beneficiaries with a sophisticated service without any interference, and the service is often available without interruption 24/7. The government agencies that provide self-service devices KIOSK:

• Ministry of Justice

• Emirate of Riyadh

• Emirate of Makah Region

• Eastern Province Emirate

• General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities

• Saudi Post

Detailed statistics

Statistics that are more detailed can be found on the following links:

• Annual Statistics Book

• Development indicators for the millennium

• Economic statistics database

• Social statistics database

• Population statistics database

• Government services statistics

• Population and Housing Atlas

• National Accounts

• Achievements of the plan (version 27) 2011

• KSA Economy in Figures

Saudi City distances

[5]

See also

Hajj; Umrah; Tawaf; Meeqat; Ihram; Makkah; Madina; Masjid E Haram;

References

[1]  http://www.saudi.gov.sa/wps/portal/yesserRoot/aboutKingdom/factsKingdom

[2] http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=115065

[3] http://www.hajinformation.com/main/q10.htm

[4] http://www.hajinformation.com/main/m793.htm

[5] http://www.the-saudi.net/saudi-arabia/saudi_city_distances.htm