Theme Week Saudi Arabia

24 April 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  19 minutes

Medina - Al-Masjid al-Nabawi - The Mosque of the Prophet © flickr.com - Omar Chatriwala/cc-by-2.0

Medina – Al-Masjid al-Nabawi – The Mosque of the Prophet © flickr.com – Omar Chatriwala/cc-by-2.0

Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is an Arab sovereign state in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km2 (830,000 sq mi), Saudi Arabia is geographically the fifth-largest state in Asia and second-largest state in the Arab world after Algeria. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba. It is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert or barren landforms. The state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The state’s official language is Arabic. English is however widely used, even on street signs. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four distinct regions: Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa) and Southern Arabia (‘Asir). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud. He united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been an absolute monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called “the predominant feature of Saudi culture”, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called “the Land of the Two Holy Mosques” in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam. Mecca and Medina are however completely blocked for non-Muslims. A violation of this rule will lead to penalties and deportation.   read more…

Theme Week Jordan

20 March 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  12 minutes

Petra at night © Susanahajer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Petra at night © Susanahajer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Jordan is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and the Dead Sea to the west and the Red Sea in its extreme south-west. Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. The capital, Amman is Jordan’s most populous city as well as the country’s economic, political and cultural centre. Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is one of two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan has very close ties to the United States of America and is considered to be a major non-NATO ally. It enjoys “advanced status” with the European Union and is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which aims to increase links between the EU and its neighbours. The country is a constitutional monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. In the midst of surrounding turmoil, it has been greatly hospitable, accepting refugees from almost all surrounding conflicts as early as 1948, with most notably the estimated 2.1 million Palestinians and the 1.4 million Syrian refugees residing in the country. The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing the Islamic State. While Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure. The UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is the second largest employer in the country.   read more…

Theme Week Israel – Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba

8 October 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  8 minutes

Marina of Eilat © Mickeyh/cc-by-sa-3.0

Marina of Eilat © Mickeyh/cc-by-sa-3.0

Eilat is Israel’s southernmost city, a busy port and popular resort located for domestic tourists at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba. The city’s port is Israels only port on the Read Sea, with a coast line of about 12 km. Home to about 47,700 people, Eilat is part of the Southern Negev Desert, at the southern end of the Arabah, adjacent to the Egyptian village of Taba to the south, the Jordanian port city of Aqaba to the east, and within sight of Saudi Arabia to the south-east, across the gulf.   read more…

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