Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية, Al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Saʻūdiyya ) is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. It borders Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south, with the Persian Gulf to its northeast and the Red Sea to its west.

The Kingdom is sometimes nicknamed “the lands of the two holy mosques”, a reference to Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest places. In English, it is most commonly referred to as Saudi Arabia (pronounced /ˈsɒdɪ/ or /ˈsaudɪ əˈɹeɪ̯bɪə/), often as just Saudi by many English-speaking expatriates in the kingdom, or, less commonly (as in international football events or in its national press) as KSA or SA. Sometimes Arabia is used to refer to the nation, but the term can also refer to the entire Arabian Peninsula and its varied nations, and sometimes the entire Arab world, and is thus ambiguous. In Arabic, the short form is usually as-Saʻūdiyya / السعودية, and local citizens often refer to the nation as Al-Mamlaka (The Kingdom).