Saudi Arabia

Geography

The kingdom occupies eighty percent of the Arabian Peninsula. Most of the country's boundaries with the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen are undefined, so the exact size of the country remains unknown. The Saudi government's estimate is 2,217,949 square kilometers. Other reputable estimates vary between 2,149,690 square kilometers and 2,240,000 square kilometers.

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The climate is dry and hot. Dry desert with great extremes of temperature and the terrain is mostly uninhabited, sandy desert. In most parts of the country, vegetation is limited to weeds, xerophytic herbs and shrubs. Animals include the ibex, wildcats, baboons, wolves, and hyenas in the highlands. Small birds are found in the oases. The coastal area of the Red Sea, especially the coral reefs, have a rich marine fauna. Saudi Arabia has a coastline of 2,640 kilometers.

Related Topics:
Red Sea - Coral reef - Fauna

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Saudi Arabia consists mostly of semi-desert and desert with oases. Almost half of the total country is uninhabitable desert with annual precipitation up to 100mm in most regions. The western regions are plateau and the east is lowland. The southwest region has mountains as high as 3000 metres, and is an area is known for greenest and freshest climate in all of the country. The capital, Riyadh, which is to the center-east has an average temperature in July of 42ºC and 14ºC in January. In contrast, Jedda on the western coast has 31ºC in July and 23ºC in January.

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Less than 2 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, such as the Rub' al Khali (desert), the Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands. There are no permanent rivers and lakes in Saudi Arabia.

Related Topics:
Desert - Rub' al Khali - Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands

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Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the 15 countries that comprise the so-called "Cradle of Humanity".

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