saudi arabia
DESCRIPTION
This is my humanities project!TRANSCRIPT
Saudi ArabiaThe Characteristics of Saudi Arabia
By Lara David 8D
Physical Location
--Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Arabian peninsula
--It is north of Yemen and it borders on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea
--Land= 2,149,690 sq km
--Water= 0 sq km
--The most area is unpopulated desert
Desert• Most of Saudi Arabia is covered by desert. Most of the desert is sandy unlike the desert in Qatar, which is rocky.
•There are huge sand dunes and many activities such as dune bashing are organized. Nomads live in Saudi’s deserts but most of them are not populated by people.
•95% of the country is desert.
•Rub' Al Khali (The Empty
Quarter) is the largest sand
desert in the world.
Climate• Saudi Arabia has a harsh climate
• Seeing as most of the country is a dry desert, there are extreme temperatures differences
• In the summer, the climate reaches up to 50 degrees and in winter it is mild
• Humidity can reach up to 100% near the coastline
• Often, in the early summer, a strong sand-laden winds called Shamal blow through the country with up to 30 km/h
Oil
• Oil is the most important resource and export of Saudi
Arabia. The whole economy and society profit from this
resource and many things such as infrastructure and
desalinization plants are funded by the income of the
exportation of oil.
• Saudi Arabia has 260 million barrels of oil reserves
• This equals around 24% of the world’s total oil reserves!
EconomyThe economy of Saudi Arabia mainly builds on the oil
export. 90% of the country‘s incomes comes from the oil
industry. Before oil was discovered, the country survived from
farming and exporting
Desalinization camps
are crucial and are
funded by the country‘s
income
This graph shows the
monthly export of oil
from Saudi Arabia.
Example- Economy
An example of Saudi Arabian economy is the large impact that
oil has on it. Without the oil export and is related industries,
Saudi Arabia would not be at the standard they are now. The
whole country depends on the oil for an income, infrastructure
and a developing economy. The economy is also affected by
the masses of expatriates that have come to Saudi because of
the oil boom and export. For example the oil company Aramco
brings yearly many thousands of labor workers to help with the
project. This affects
Social- IslamIslam is the major religion in Saudi
Arabia and the whole life of the
civilization are dependant on the
religious procedures such as
praying, Ramadan, and the
celebration days such as Eid Al Fitr.
The society changes timings and
dates to fit the religious traditions
and this affects everyone in the
country. Praying occurs five times a
day and you will often hear the call
for prayer from the mosques.
The holy city of Mecca
is in the West. It is the
center or Islam.
Social- Women
• In Saudi Arabia, women have little\no rights. They are not allowed to drive, go in public without a husband or veil and they can not vote.
• Many people are trying to change this and they are demonstrating against the government
• In the future, huge differences will have to occur in this issue seeing as many countries are already protesting against Saudi because of miss-treatment of the human rights
Example- Islam
A very strong example of how Islam affects the society is the
holy month of Ramadan. During this month, Muslims refrain
from food and drink from dawn to sunset. This traditions
affects life and living in Saudi Arabia during this month. Many
people come later to work and they leave earlier seeing as
they are tired and have no energy. This affects the economy
because a lot less work is being done and researches show
us that during Ramadan, less export occurs which is harmful
for the economy. The driving on the streets is affected and
drinking or eating in public is forbidden.
Government and Politics
• The country is governed by the royal family and the king and leader is called Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz
• The type of government is called a monarchy
• The king of Saudi Arabia may ask important tribal leaders for their advice when making difficult decisions
• The citizens can only vote the ministers seeing as the leading role will always stay in the hands of the king
• Women are not allowed to vote
• The Qur'an is considered the constitution for Saudi Arabian law
Example- PoliticalAn example from the governmental and political point of view
of Saudi Arabia would be the power that the king has. He is
not only the ruler of the whole country, he has also become
one of the richest people in the world because of the oil export
in Saudi Arabia. In most country‘s the king can not make the
law alone but in Saudi he can make and change every
decision that he does not agree with or like!
This has had several affects on the country
seeing as they have no influence on the law
or government. Many people are not happy
with this.
Analysis- EconomyThe reason why I chose the impact of oil on the economy
for my example was because the whole country depends
on it. Without it, the country would not have the wealth
and power it has today! The economy is booming which
allows the government to build desalinization camps,
which are expensive, and support agriculture. This way
the whole country benefits from the large oil reserves.
Still, sometimes the money goes into the wrong hands
which is not fair on the society. For example, the people
that are highly ranked, often receive money even though
they did not contribute anything.
Analysis- Islam\SocialThe reason why I chose Ramadan as my example was
because it is a time where the whole country is affected
even if they are not Muslim. This can mean negative and
positive changes. The negative effect is the fact that the
country‘s economy suffers because of less work timings.
Also, the driving is more hectic seeing as all the people
can think about food. But on the other hand, the whole
country is in a cultural highlight and are enjoying their
holy month. This is definitely the time of the year that
impacts the society in the strongest way: both culturally
and economically.
Analysis- Government The reason why I chose the power that the king has as my
example is because he is the person in Saudi Arabia that
has control of everything. This has a major impact on the
country because this man can change, add or eliminate any
project or issue in the whole country. This means he can
make any changes to anything he wants. For example when
there is an oil project, the king may make any changes and
often he gets a share of the money when he contributed
nothing. This can lead to problems because any do not
agree with the fact that the king gets credit for many projects
that he did not lead.
Bibliography
Pictureshttp://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=5769&rendTypeId=4
http://www.aiitc.org/meka.jpg
http://www.mideastweb.org/saudia.jpg
http://www.google.com
Informationhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_arabia