Plan your trip to Saudi Arabia

Abd Al-Aziz established the modern state of Saudi Arabia in 1932, though the Saudi family had ruled the desert kingdom in the Middle East since the 18th century. Prior to the 1960s, a majority of the population was nomadic or seminomadic, but large scale production of vast oil reserves led to rapid economic and urban development and today the majority of the population is settled. With roughly a quarter of the world’s oil reserves, the country is now one of the wealthiest in the world.

Most significantly, Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and home to the religion’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina. Mecca, birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 570, contains the Ka’aba, literally “the cube,” a small stone building housing a sacred black stone in the Great Mosque. One of the Five Pillars of Islam, Hajj, dictates each Muslim, if physically and financially able, must visit this site at least once in life. Medina, north of Mecca, is Muhammad’s burial place. It served as his home after the Hijrah, or flight, from Mecca in order to escape persecution; his tomb rests on a site adjacent to his former home. It should be noted, only Muslims are permitted to enter each city.