...LOCATION...
Location of Jeddah...HISTORY...
~Region's Old History~
Jeddah is one of the oldest cities in the Old History. It was known since about 2500 year, so it is an old city which the Old History mentioned that it was meadows for the nineteenth grandfather of the God's Prophet (Kada'aa), which was inhabited by Kada'aa People after the collapse of Maareb Dam in 1115 BC. And it was said that Thamoud People lived in Jeddah before Kada'aa for there was found a Thamoudian engraving in Bouweib Valley to the north eastern of Jeddah. And it goes back to before Alexander The Great who visited it between 323 and 356 BC according to some telling.
~Region's History after Islam~
Islam was brought to Jeddah in the era of the God's Prophet; and during the beginning of the Islamic State, Successor Othman Bin Affan wanted to have access to the sea for its commerce so he chose Jeddah for this purpose in 26 HIJRI 646 AD.
Jeddah continued under the influence of the continuous Islamic succession starting with the Ommiad State reaching Egypt Kings. And Jeddah fence were built by Sultan Kansouh El Ghouri in (915 HIJRI - 1509 AD), who was the last of the Seljuks Kings who ruled Jeddah in the tenth HIJRI century, and in that date the reign was shifted from Egypt Kings to Ottoman State and ended with the siege of King Abed El Aziz Al Suoud for Jeddah City where it was surrendered after signing the surrender agreement between King Abed El Aziz Al Suoud and Sheriff Ali Bin El Hussein in year 1344 HIJRI - 1925 AD. As the political stability took place under the reign of the Saudi Rule under the guidance of King Abed El Aziz Al Suoud (mercy be upon his soul),ah entered a new stage of development and prosperity.
~Modern History~
After uniting the Saudi Arabia Kingdom in (1351 HIJRI, 1932 AD), Jeddah entered a new chronological period which is related to the oil discovery and extracting in (1359 HIJRI, 1938 AD) in the Eastern Region of the Kingdom. And due to its strategic location, it was influenced with the new development means, where modern buildings and giant constructions were built, as well as projects of transportation, telecommunication, and health, and the infra structure and the public utilities started largely during the last decades; so Jeddah features changed from a small and simple city to a big city following the Renaissance and Development Age with the Kingdom's remaining cities.
...GEOGRAPHY...
Most of the land in Saudi Arabia is covered with desert. It's central region consist of an eroded plateau, mostly arid and hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The western region is mountaimountainous, except for the coastal plain bordering the Red Sea such as the Jeddah area.
Jeddah borders the Red Sea from the west and the Al-Sarawat Mountains from the east. It has no rivers or valley but it includes Sharm Ob'hur which connect the Red Sea to the other end of the city. Sharm of Salman borders the city from north....ECONOMY...
Jeddah happens to be the second commercial capital of Saudi Arabia and also defined as the second commercial centre of the Middle East after Riyadh. Plus, it's geographical location places it at the heart of the region covered by the Middle East and North Africa. Other than that, Jeddah industrial district is the four largest industrial city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jubail and Yanbu.
King Abdullah Street is an important place for companies' offices and commercial developments. The street hosts some of the most powerful conglomerates in Saudi Arabia such as Emaar Middle East. Due to the economic boom in this region there is a central business district planned which would be one of the biggest CBD in the eastern world.
While, Tahlia Street is an important fashion and shopping street in the mid-town of Jeddah. It contains many upscale department shops, and boutiques such as Prada, Gucci and Chanel.
...DEMOGRAPHICS...
Popular Saudi and foreign opinion regards Jeddah as the most liberal and cosmopolitan of Saudi cities due to its historic role as port and gateway to the holy city of Mecca. For over one thousand years, Jeddah has received millions of pilgrims of different ethnicities and backgrounds, from Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East, many of whom remained and became residents of the city. As a result, Jeddah is much more ethnically diverse than most Saudi cities and its culture more eclectic in nature (in contrast with the more geographically isolated, and religiously strict capital Riyadh). Added to the traditional diversity, the oil-boom of the past 50 years has brought hundreds of thousands of working immigrants and fforeign workersfrom non-Muslim countries, the majority originating from continents such as North America (United States of America), Europe (Western Europe), and Asia (South and South-East Asia); there are also many Christian Arabs from the Middle East, coming from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and the West Bank and Gaza.
...CITYSCAPE...
~Old Jeddah~
The Old City with its traditional multistory buildings and merchant houses has lost ground to more modern development. However, the city's recent generations have come to acceptance with the "face of the past". The Old city now helps in shaping the identity of the Saudi Culture, also showing its consuervative development to becoming a modern society, while preserving such areas as the distinict Gabil Market (Gabil Street) and Naseef House and other traditional landmarks.
The Old City is an attraction to non-Saudis who visit Jeddah on terms of Business (Saudi issues visit visas for business, and religious purposes only). In Eid holidays, locals visit the area for traditional style carnivals aimed for families and children.
~Open-air Art..Landmarks~
During the oil boom in the late 1970s and 1980s, there was a focused civic effort at bringing art to Jeddah'spublic areas. As a result, Jeddah contains a large number of modern open air sculptures and works of art, typically situated in roundabouts, which makes it to this day the largest open-air art gallery in the world. Sculptures include works by a variety of artists, ranging from the obscure to international stars such as Alexander Calder,Henry Moore and Victor Vasarely and often depict elements of traditional Saudi culture - coffee pots, incense burners, palm trees, etc. The fact that Islamic tradition prohibits the depiction of living creatures, notably the human form, has made for some very creative modern art, ranging from the tasteful to the bizarre and downright hideous. These include a mounted defunct propeller plane, a giant geometry set, a giant bicycle, and a huge block of concrete with several cars protruding out of it at odd angles.
Landmark 1
Landmark 2
Unique Landmark 3
Other than that, King Fahd's Fountain is also the cityscape of Jeddah. In Jeddah, there are a few towers that were built for it's developement such as the IDB Tower and Jeddah Municipality Tower.
King Fahd Fountain
...EDUCATION...
As a well-developed city, Jeddah also pay much attention to the education level of the public including male and female. There are also some international schools built in Jeddah. For higher education, the city has several universities and colleges such as the KingAbdulaziz University and Dar Al-Hekma College.
...TRANSPORT...
Jeddah is served by King Abdulaziz International Airport which is one of the world's busiest airport.The airport has four passenger terminals. One is the Hajj Terminal, a special outdoor terminal covered by very huge tents, which was constructed to handle the more than 2 million pilgrims who pass through the airport during the Hajj season. The Southern Terminal is used for Saudi Airlines flights with the Northern Terminal for foreign and other national airlines. The Royal Terminal is a special terminal for VIPs, foreign Kings and Presidents, and even the Saudi Royal Family. A portion of the airport was used by Coalition B-52 heavy bombers during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Moreover,the Jeddah Seaport which is the 32nd busiest seaport in the world (2007) handles the majority of Saudi Arabia's commercial movement.
On top of that, Jeddah does not have any rapid transit system but a current plan to connect the city to the capital, Riyadh, via a train. It is now under construction. The Haramain High Speed Rail Project will provide a high speed rail connection to Mecca and Medina.Modern streets connect the city parts to each other. In Jeddah the main highways run parallel to each other with an eight lane road.
I think all the above information will be enough to show that Jeddah is one of the World's Megacity although maybe it is not as tourism-famous as New York City or Tokyo or even Seoul. I had the opportunity to go there once and I am hoping to go there again. The first night when me and my family arrived at Jeddah, I was amazed by the scenery. The city is glooming with lights and somehow it shows as like the city never sleep (not only Las Vegas does not sleep..). It will be more beautiful if you are seating in a night flight and when you look down out the mirror. Although the weather is hot there but it is not as sticky-sweat we have in Malaysia as the air is dry there in Saudi Arabia..(you won't smell bad eventhough you sweat a lot..). Before I end, here are some more pictures of Jeddah.
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