Saudi Arabia map & highlights

Don’t underestimate the size of Saudi Arabia. The biggest country in the Middle East and the 13th largest in the world contains a very big desert, a small, wealthy population and hundreds of fire-breathing oil fields. Saudi Arabia can surprise visitors with green southern mountains and dramatic desert plateaus – but its key sights are well spread out so you’ll need to fly between them.

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Saudi Arabia map & highlights

The enormous Arabian Peninsula is easy to pick out on a map: a broad boot kicking out from Africa, the Red Sea to the west and the Arabian Gulf to the east. The atmospherically-named ‘Empty Quarter’ is a vast desert that covers a fourth of the landmass. You’ll need to head to the North Province to see the Nabatean tombs at Mada'in Saleh. The capital, Riyadh, sits inland, on a plateau in the conservatively-minded Nejd province, whilst Red Sea-facing Hejaz province is where you’ll find Jeddah, Medina and Mecca – but latter is off limits to non-Muslim tourists. Head south for a surprise: the green mountains of the Asir region.

The houses are roughly built of limestone and coralline, and their walls full of fossils crumble like almond cake,

- explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton, visiting Jeddah in the 1850s.

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1. Asir
2. Al Ula
3. Jeddah
4. Riyadh

Asir

1. Asir

Head down to the city of Abha to be surprised by how green and mountainous Saudi Arabia can be. High in Asir, a southwestly province with strong Yemenite heritage, you’ll find a mountain village once only reached by climbing a rope, whilst a cable car trip takes you to the top of Mount Souda. Fruit sellers set up roadside shops in the national park. Round the next bend, you might encounter a troop of fruit-eating baboons.

Asir

Al Ula

2. Al Ula

There are two Al Ulas. There’s the new town, then there’s the abandoned ruins of the old, a ghost town considered too tightly-packed for modern living. You can visit both, but save time for the nearby Nabatean ruins at Mada'in Saleh, once the civilisation’s second most important city, and now a weather-worn cemetery of sombre charnel houses in the middle of the desert.

Jeddah

3. Jeddah

Known as the ‘bride of the Red Sea’, Jeddah is a humid port town. It’s Saudi’s commercial capital and is considered to have a less conservative outlook than the rest of the country. Resorts do away with rules once you’re through the lobby, and its rumoured that the uber-rich live above the laws in the area. Visit for the old town, and imagine pilgrims staying here centuries ago, en-route to nearby Mecca.

Jeddah

Riyadh

4. Riyadh

The oil industry has transformed Riyadh from sleepy capital to shiny desert metropolis, complete with the towering 300 metre high Kingdom Centre. The city is a little charmless – but northwest is the UNESCO-listed ad-Dir'iyah – a ruined town and citadel with ragged, roofless mud stone houses. Keep heading north and you’ll hit Jebel Fihrayn, a dramatic escarpment that’s known as the ‘edge of the world’.