7 Facts You Didn’t Know About Saudi Arabia

Ben Johnson

April 12, 2022

1. No river

Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the world with no river! While you may encounter small streams or larger after a rare big rain, there are no permanent rivers in the entire country. Next time you look at a map, you’ll notice there will be no thin blue lines crossing any part of the country.

2. Drunk northern border

When you look at a map of Saudi Arabia you will see its northern border is seemingly just a bunch of random straight lines. The reason behind this? Well, supposedly this line was drawn by Winston Churchill with the stroke of a pen after a boozy lunch in Cairo.

3. 60% of labour is foreign

Yes, you read right! This is made up of people from all over the world who work largely in construction, services and of course oil and gas. The majority of these people come from South Asia and the Philippines. You will definitely hear not just Arabic being spoken when travelling here, especially in cities like Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam.

4. Saudi Arabia is huge!

Saudi Arabia is much larger than you think. Want to do a road trip? Well expect to put in the hours as Saudi Arabia covers an area similar in size to Western Europe. Only in Saudi Arabia you will be driving through lots of barren landscape as opposed to a series of populated western European countries.

5. Camels are still very important

When we think of the Middle East many of us will have an outdated image of people riding on camels. While you might not see them ridden everywhere, they are certainly still big business, with over 100 camels still sold in the capital, Riyadh, every day.

6. Land of tall things!

Not only does Jeddah in Saudi Arabia host the world’s tallest free-standing fountain, the same city also is constructing the world’s tallest building called Kingdom Tower. Which, when complete will be over 1km high. Construction, however, has for now stalled. And until recently they were the proud holder of the world’s tallest flagpole – but even now still have number 2 position!

7. It snows!

Yes, it is rare, but it can and does happen. Mainly in the northern Tabuk province, the mountains here can experience a few dustings of snow every year if the conditions are right. There have even been rare cases where it has snowed in the desert and the white powder has covered sand dunes during overnight freezing temperatures. A ski resort is still out of the question though…

Think that's all pretty cool and interesting? Well click here if you want 8 more facts about Saudi that you probably didn't know.

And if you'd like to come with us to this enigma of a country, check out all our upcoming Saudi tours .