Riyadh

Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, and a major center of Saudi administration, education, culture, and commerce. Centrally located in the province of the same name (Ar Riyād in Arabic), the city is an important hub for transportation, with an international airport, rail connections to the Persian Gulf coast, and highways to most parts of the country. Beginning in the 1940s, the country’s growing oil revenues helped fund the development of a modern city, which now has freeways, high-rises, massive water towers, and one of the fastest rates of population growth in the world. Riyadh’s economy relies mainly on the provision of services, construction, food processing, and petroleum production.

The city stands on what was once an oasis at the confluence of several wadis (seasonally flooding stream beds). Riyadh, meaning “gardens” in Arabic, takes its name from an agricultural area in this oasis. Prior to the mid-20th century, Riyadh was a village notable mainly for its scattered mud-brick settlements and its supply of underground water, which made possible the cultivation of dates, fruits, grains, and vegetables. While most of the buildings that existed before the oil era have been lost, the government has renovated several historic structures, including the 19th-century Musmak Fort.

Riyadh has been the principal residence of the ruling Saudi family since 1824, when Saudi forces expelled an invading Egyptian army from the central Arabian Peninsula. The Saudi family presided over the construction of Musmak Fort, a mosque, and fortified walls in Riyadh, but was nevertheless forced out of the city by the rival Rashidi family in 1891. In 1902, in a daring nighttime attack on Musmak Fort, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud recaptured Riyadh and began a quest to expand the Saudi domain. His conquests culminated in the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Despite being the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh was dwarfed in size and importance by the metropolis of Jiddah for decades. It was not until 1985 that all government offices moved to Riyadh, which is now the largest city in Saudi Arabia. Population (1999 estimate) 3,180,000.