The Arabian Peninsula, or simply Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. The term "Middle East" refers to the Arabian Peninsula and lands bordering the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea, the northernmost part of the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen, as well as southern Iraq and Jordan.
The Arabian Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and south-west, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the north-east, the Levant and Mesopotamia to the north and the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the south-east.
Satellite view of the Arabian Peninsula
Historical Context
The era of human settlement in the Arabian Peninsula predating any systematic written records is known as Prehistoric Arabia. The period of Arabian history beginning with the appearance of systematic records, until the rise of Islam, is known as Pre-Islamic Arabia. In antiquity, the term "Arabia" encompassed a larger area than the current term "Arabian Peninsula" and included the Arabian Desert and large parts of the Syrian-Arabian desert.
During the Hellenistic period, the area was known as Arabia (Ancient Greek: Ἀραβία). The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the south-west, there are mountain ranges, which receive greater rainfall than the rest of the peninsula.
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The Countries of the Arabian Peninsula
The Peninsula's constituent countries are (clockwise from north to south) Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the east, Oman on the south-east, Yemen on the south, and Saudi Arabia at the center. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the greater part of the Peninsula. The Peninsula contains the world's largest reserves of oil.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, the only peninsular country in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home to the Arabic television station Al Jazeera and its English-language subsidiary Al Jazeera English. Despite its historically sparse population, political Arabia stands out for its rapid population growth, driven by both significant inflows of migrant labor and persistently high birth rates.
The population is characterized by its relative youth and a heavily skewed gender ratio favoring males. In several states, the number of South Asians surpasses that of the native population. The four smallest states (by area), with coastlines entirely bordering the Persian Gulf, showcase the world's most extreme population growth, nearly tripling every two decades.
Geological and Climatic Features
The rocks exposed vary systematically across Arabia, with the oldest rocks exposed in the Arabian-Nubian Shield near the Red Sea, overlain by earlier sediments that become younger towards the Persian Gulf. Arabia has few lakes or permanent rivers. Most areas are drained by ephemeral watercourses called wadis, which are dry except during the rainy season.
Plentiful ancient aquifers exist beneath much of the peninsula, however, and where this water surfaces, oases form (e.g. Al-Hasa and Qatif, two of the world's largest oases) and permit agriculture, especially palm trees, which allowed the peninsula to produce more dates than any other region in the world. In general, the climate is extremely hot and arid, although there are exceptions.
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Higher elevations are made temperate by their altitude, and the Arabian Sea coastline can receive cool, humid breezes in summer due to cold upwelling offshore. The peninsula has no thick forests. A plateau more than 2,500 feet (760 m) high extends across much of the Arabian Peninsula. The plateau slopes eastwards from the massive, rifted escarpment along the coast of the Red Sea, to the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf.
The interior is characterized by cuestas and valleys, drained by a system of wadis. There are mountains at the eastern, southern and north-western borders of the peninsula. From the Hijaz southwards, the mountains show a steady increase in altitude westward as they get nearer to Yemen, and the highest peaks and ranges are all located in Yemen. Not all mountains in the peninsula are visibly within ranges.
Climate Zones
- Some areas have a summer humid tropical monsoon climate, in particular the Dhofar and Al Mahrah areas of Oman and Yemen, which allow for large scale coconut plantations.
- Much of Yemen has a tropical monsoon rain influenced mountain climate.
- The plains usually have either a tropical or subtropical arid desert climate or arid steppe climate.
The sea surrounding the Arabian Peninsula is generally tropical with a very rich sea life and some of the world's largest and most pristine coral reefs. In addition, the protozoa and zooxanthellae living in symbiosis with Red Sea corals have a unique hot weather adaptation to sudden rise (and fall) in sea water temperature. Hence, these coral reefs are not affected by coral bleaching caused by rise in temperatures, as Indo-Pacific coral reefs are.
The reefs are also unaffected by mass tourism and diving or other large scale human interference. The fertile soils of Yemen have encouraged settlement of almost all of the land from sea level up to the mountains at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). In the higher elevations, elaborate terraces have been constructed to facilitate grain, fruit, coffee, ginger and khat cultivation.
Terraced fields in Yemen
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Saudi Arabia and its Significance
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the greater part of the Peninsula, with an area of 2.15 million km², it is about four times the size of France. The country is home to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Arabian peninsula is known for its rich oil, i.e. major cities are Jeddah, the seaport on the Red Sea coast and the principal gateway for pilgrims to Mecca, Hofuf an urban center in the Al-Ahsa Oasis and the closest city to the great Ghawar oil field, Tabuk is an ancient city near the Midian Mountains close to the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border, Ta'if, the unofficial summer capital of Saudi Arabia and Buraidah, an urban center in the Al-Qassim Region in the center of the peninsula.
Egypt's Role
The Middle East includes the states of Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Israel. The Middle East area represents a region of more than five million square miles. The physical geography is too a varied one. One will find vast expanses of deserts, which experience low rainfall. Temperatures in these areas show huge extremes.
Several major rivers provide irrigation to support agriculture in limited areas here, such as the Nile Delta in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates watersheds of Mesopotamia, and the basin of the Jordan River that spans most of the Levant. The Middle East generally has a hot, arid climate, especially in the Arabian and Egyptian regions.
Economic Overview
Middle Eastern economies range from being very poor (such as Gaza and Yemen) to extremely wealthy nations (such as Qatar and UAE). According to the International Monetary Fund, the three largest Middle Eastern economies in nominal GDP in 2023 were Saudi Arabia ($1.06 trillion), Turkey ($1.03 trillion), and Israel ($0.54 trillion).
For nominal GDP per person, the highest ranking countries are Qatar ($83,891), Israel ($55,535), the United Arab Emirates ($49,451) and Cyprus ($33,807). Turkey ($3.6 trillion), Saudi Arabia ($2.3 trillion), and Iran ($1.7 trillion) had the largest economies in terms of GDP PPP. For GDP PPP per person, the highest-ranking countries are Qatar ($124,834), the United Arab Emirates ($88,221), Saudi Arabia ($64,836), Bahrain ($60,596) and Israel ($54,997).
The economic structure of Middle Eastern nations are different because while some are heavily dependent on export of only oil and oil-related products (Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait), others have a highly diverse economic base (such as Cyprus, Israel, Turkey and Egypt).
Industries of the Middle Eastern region include oil and oil-related products, agriculture, cotton, cattle, dairy, textiles, leather products, surgical instruments, defence equipment (guns, ammunition, tanks, submarines, fighter jets, UAVs, and missiles). With the exception of Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and Israel, tourism has been a relatively undeveloped area of the economy, in part because of the socially conservative nature of the region as well as political turmoil in certain regions.
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GDP (Nominal) in 2023 (Trillions of US$)
| Country | GDP (Nominal) |
|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | $1.06 |
| Turkey | $1.03 |
| Israel | $0.54 |
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